James Milin-Ashmore is cynical about reality TV – but he’ll give TNA’s talent search a chance…
The second season of TNA’s British Boot Camp kicked off on Challenge on Sunday night, offering aspiring British wrestlers a chance to win a contract with the American promotion if they impress the panel of pros (Al Snow, Gail Kim and Samoa Joe) serving as judges.
Like many men across the country, I’m forced to watch The X Factor with my better half if I’m home over the weekend. This means that over the years, I’ve come to truly appreciate the idiosyncrasies of the televised reality talent show, but it’s also left me jaded and cynical of the format. Here’s what I thought…
I didn’t watch the inaugural season of BBC, but I was vaguely aware of Rockstar Spud’s success at TNA since winning the competition last year (he’s doing better than James Arthur, X Factor fans), so I was interested to see the talent on show during the Glasgow edition.
Thankfully, the programme got straight to the point, with the wrestlers made to introduce themselves to the judges right away to see whether they had the charisma to join the big boys.
As with all talent shows, there were a few cheap laughs to be had as Al Snow set about humiliating some of the more cocky competitors, with the pick of the bunch being Joe Vega, who, when asked to impress the judges, chose to moonsault onto his head, injuring his dodgy knee in the process. It was possibly my personal highlight, which was no bad thing.
Then there was Grado. He cut a decent promo, making it through to the second round (where the judges checked out the athletes in-ring abilities) but turned up late to the audition because he was “at the buffet”. Snow wasn’t impressed, giving him his marching orders as he got noticeably angrier at Grado’s timekeeping. But did he turn up late on purpose, keeping with his “lazy slob” character? He couldn’t have actually been at the buffet, so it was either poor judgement on his part, or it was a set-up. Either way, it’s great when a Scottish person says buffet.
On to the serious competition then. Kay Lee Ray, Nikki Storm and Viper impressed for the women during the first round, with Storm actually lifting and walking around with Al Snow on her shoulders.
For the men, Noam Dar passed the first round, cutting a promo against Samoa Joe in Hebrew. (He pounded a table, I have no idea.) He was joined by Priscilla Queen of the Ring, whose gimmick was his bisexuality, which was a lot better than the stupid tough guy routines that were turned away en masse.
For the second round,(after Grado’s dismissal), there was a quick montage of a few training matches, which then cut to the judges deliberating as to who should go home. In the end, they chose Nikki, Noam and Kay Lee to go through, which were the obvious choices. I would have liked them to take a punt on Priscilla and Viper as they both offered something different, but in the end the judges probably made the right choice, picking the most honed of the entrants.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the programme was decent, and I’ll probably catch it next Sunday night. It’s a damn sight better than The X Factor.