Given that sports entertainment is one part athletics, one part scripted storylines and one part reality, it was inevitable that the WWE would at one point venture into reality television.
Pulse Wrestling’s Mark Allen takes a look into the four season’s of Tough Enough in his Historically Speaking column. Here’s a sample:
“Henigan was the first to make to the main stage. He appeared in early 2004 as an apprentice for RAW GM Eric Bischoff using a variety of gimmick names before settling on Johnny Nitro. He was sent back to Ohio Valley in June of that year for more seasoning. It was here that he formed the MNM team with real life girlfriend Melina Perez and Joey Matthews, now dubbed Joey Mercury. The trio showed up on SmackDown! in April 2005 and instantly won Tag Team gold. The pair teamed until May 2006 when Mercury was sent to rehab and Nitro and Melina went to RAW. They reunited with Mercury in November 2006 and teamed off and on until Mercury’s release before WrestleMania. Nitro remains on RAW to this day, a far cry from his early days as Tough Enough winner John Henigan.”
