James Milin-Ashmore is beginning to tire of British Boot Camp 2…
Another week of British Boot Camp, and another half-hour of filler. Instead of showing us the six-man match between the contestants as advertised, we saw the hopefuls attempting to learn the ropes in TNA’s six-sided ring, to varying degrees of success.
It wasn’t particularly action-packed, but episode six was still a marked improvement on the last outing. Whilst it was chockfull of Grado-flavoured filler, they also remembered to show some wrestling too, as the hopefuls were put through their paces by TNA’s Magnus, Austin Aries and DJ Z.
Al Snow was quick to stress that they were constantly being evaluated, so the pressure was on as each contestant stepped into the six-sided ring, some for the very first time.
The six-sided ring itself can be contentious, as the ropes are incredibly stiff, and there’s also the issue of injuries. The decision to use six sides instead of four was actually a decision put to a fan vote by TNA’s management, and Aries himself took to Twitter to lament the change saying:
“For those curious, I find #6sides to be far less forgiving on the body and harder to manoeuver around, especially on the top rope. #4sides”
It was somewhat ironic that he would be the one to ‘show the contestants the ropes’, but it was a lesson that they needed to understand for their own safety. Noam Dar looked like he suffered whiplash a few times as he came off the ropes at speed, but it was better than a serious injury during a live event.
Ethan Carter III was in attendance to bait Grado, but he also commented on the ring situation at the time, again on Twitter: “This is why democracy doesn’t work. You people should not have a choice when it comes to my well-being and safety. #Traditional #4sides”
Anyway, back to the wrestling. Kay Lee Ray, Rampage and Noam put in a good shift during their training, and Dave Mastiff was made to prove his conditioning (successfully), once again against Aries.
Mark Andrews was called a little timid (though he was the first of the contestants to go), while Grado impressed DJ Z for showing his personality and charisma during his bout.
All of a sudden, it was over. The runtime for the last two shows has been roughly 23 minutes each, compared to the “hour-long” 45-minute offerings for the first four shows. It’s a little jarring that they changed the runtime halfway through the season, as I was just settling down for the third part when it abruptly ended.
If I’m honest, it feels like they cut a normal episode in half, but I don’t think I could have actually taken the full hour of RV antics and throwing Grado in the showers that would have entailed, so I’m pretty thankful.
For now, it’s still a wrestling competition that needs more actual wrestling.