WWE Tough Enough 2015: Recap, Reaction and Elimination from July 21

We are officially at this competition's halfway point. Five weeks have passed, five competitors have been eliminated, one chose to leave on her own and someone new was brought in to fill the void.

From this point forward, it's no longer a marathon. It's a sprint. Anyone who loses a challenge can be placed into the bottom three, and as we have seen in every elimination, the way people vote is not always based on skill.

The wrestling business is different from any other form of entertainment or sport in the world, and the men and women of WWE Tough Enough are learning some hard lessons about how to navigate the shark-infested waters.

Fifth Week's Challenges

The first challenge featured an obstacle course against Florida police officers. It looked like quite the daunting task to overcome, even for someone in very good shape. It was a race between everyone. They all started at the same time, so it was pretty clear who had the best cardio and speed early on.

Tanner took an early lead, which wasn't surprising. He established in the first episode that his cardio is great, and he has a lot of endurance. What was surprising was that Tanner was actually helping Patrick and the others who were having issues with the rope climb once he was done.

It was kind of funny when some of the local police officers were taunting the contestants who were having trouble during the rope climb. ZZ, Amanda and Chelsea had the most trouble pulling themselves up the rope, and unfortunately Chelsea ended up falling down and suffering an ankle injury.

It always sucks to see someone get hurt, but it was especially rough for her because she only arrived last week. She found out it was just a sprain, so she is still in the competition.

When the trainers were talking to everyone after the contest, Lita made sure to tell Patrick to keep his ego in check. He was the second-to-last male to finish, and it must have been humbling for him to realize there are things he can't do.

When the contestants went to the Performance Center for the second challenge, the judges asked Chelsea how her ankle was doing. She looked like she wanted to compete, but Giorgia immediately spoke up and said Sara told her Chelsea has to stay off her feet for at least a month.

Giorgia got a little emotional and said she was sad to see this happen to someone who had been given a second chance, but Sara wasn't too moved by her crocodile tears. Chelsea took the doctor's advice and sat out for the day, which was the right call so she didn't aggravate the injury further.

The second challenge was all about showmanship while performing some of the basic maneuvers the participants learned up to this point. Everyone was paired up, and the person who gave the best performance got to talk trash to their opponent while they did 50 squats.

Mada outperformed Patrick and made him say, "I'm bowing down to my king" every time he did a squat. Billy Gunn was definitely enjoying himself watching all this happen. ZZ and Sara also ended up doing squats while having to say something ridiculous.

Booker T named Mada as the men's overall winner, and Giorgia took the women's honor. It looked like most of the contestants picked up a few basics with relative ease, but you could see that some were struggling.

In the Studio and Back at the Barracks

ZZ tried to talk to Patrick about his ego, but it didn't seem like Pat wanted to listen, although ZZ's use of a peanut butter and jelly metaphor may have made his message confusing.

Amanda and Giorgia bonded over their mutual lack of love for Chelsea. They took offense to Chelsea claiming that she was different from them during the live portion of last week's show because she isn't a bikini model. However, Sara was there to console Chelsea after her injury, so she has at least one friend among the women.

ZZ was upset about his performance in the first challenge. Tanner, Mada and Josh were trying to give him some advice, but Patrick seemed to get angry at him out of nowhere. He called ZZ's passion into question and took offense to him even being in the competition when he isn't as physically fit as the rest.

Sara was upset at Giorgia after the second challenge for saying, "Sara said Chelsea has to stay off her feet for a month." It ended up turning into a full-blown argument, with Sara against Amanda and Giorgia. The men could clearly be seen finding humor in the situation while it was all going down.

An added bonus took place in the studio during the show's live portion. Big Show made all the men take off their shirts and take one of his patented slaps to the chest. The judges were smiling and laughing, watching all the rookies accumulate some welts.

Big Show was having a ball. He talked a little trash and gave some sound advice while dishing out what Chris Jericho called "a frying pan to the chest." ZZ and Patrick looked like they were in the most pain after it was over, while Josh, Tanner and Mada took it like champs.

Week 5 Elimination: Patrick

Before the judges picked the bottom three, they addressed the contestants. They asked ZZ if he had been training harder, and both Patrick and Tanner agreed that he had.

Paige was happy Sara finally started to show some spunk during her fight with Amanda and Giorgia. It was also revealed that Amanda never finished the obstacle course because Booker T thought she was going to hurt herself after falling off the ropes. It was good advice, but it didn't help Chelsea.

Speaking of Chelsea, it turns out she has Wolverine's healing factor as she has already been cleared to compete and train again. Anyone who has ever sprained their ankle will tell you it usually takes longer than a week to heal completely, so it's impressive that she is already back on her feet.

Then it came time to nominate the bottom three. Daniel Bryan chose ZZ for his lack of physical improvement, and Paige picked Patrick because of his ego. Hogan had wanted to pick Patrick for the same reason, so he ended up going with Josh because he has consistently been in the middle of the pack.

The contestants were only given 15 seconds to make a plea for why they should stay in the competition instead of the usual 30. None of the judges used their one save for the season, and when the votes were counted, Patrick was sent home. One thing that was clear was that this week's elimination showed that nobody is safe.

Tough Talk

Tough Talk started with everyone hugging Patrick. Even though he has shown a lot of arrogance since the first episode, he owned up to it and acknowledged that it was his downfall. Hogan said he respected him for being a man about it, and Bryan literally applauded him for admitting his mistakes.

The Miz was clearly surprised by the outcome and questioned the decision to put him in the bottom three. He said he was just as cocky and arrogant as Patrick, and Paige jokingly said he should have been out of WWE ages ago. Paige and The Miz argued back and forth a bit, but Bryan offered some sound advice.

Bryan recalled how he had been signed when he was 18 and fired before he was 20 and how it actually forced him to go outside his comfort zone and become better. It's possible Patrick will take this experience and come back in the future. Hopefully he takes all the advice he was given and turns this into a career-making experience.

There was a funny moment where Mada brought up how The Miz was defeated by Big Show on Monday and Big Show came back onstage and chased The Miz away. It's always entertaining to see these guys interact in an informal setting.

Paige put Giorgia on the spot and questioned if she was really sad for Chelsea. Giorgia tried to convince them that she was genuine, but Paige and Bryan weren't convinced at all. Sara and Chelsea were brought into the conversation, and things got a lot more interesting. However, nothing was settled.

Interesting Tidbits

• WWE showed a picture of how Josh's hands looked after the rope climb. It was disgusting.
• There was a sweet moment where Josh was talking to his daughter on a webcam, and she had a bun just like his.
• Did anyone else laugh at Tanner eating popcorn while he was watching the girls fight? It was like he was watching a movie.
• ZZ was the only one who didn't want to go shirtless for Big Show's chest slap. It just goes to show you that men have body issues, too.
• It was awesome that Renee Young asked Patrick if his lack of humility led to his downfall. He ate a big slice of humble pie and said he wanted ZZ to win despite what we had seen earlier in the show.
• Paige still thinks Tanner has no game.
• Apparently Paige was once hit by a car and wrestled the next day.
• This is the first time Bryan's pick didn't get voted off the show. The curse is broken!

Final Thoughts

It felt like the theme of this week's show was all about advice. Jericho, Big Show, The Miz, the trainers and the judges all passed along words of wisdom to the contestants, and it wasn't just the usual generic advice people tend to give about keeping your head up.

Patrick's nomination was a little surprising given how well he has performed in every competition, but his elimination wasn't because fans vote for who they like the best, and nobody likes a big ego.

It seemed like most of the drama would leave with Gabi last week, but that definitely didn't happen. Now the big feud is between Sara and Giorgia, and Paige was more than happy to take a big spoon and stir the pot. WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley, WWE NXT Wrestling's Sylvester Lefort and WWE Diva Summer Rae shared their thoughts regarding Tuesday night's episode:

As far as entertainment is concerned, this was the season's best episode. It was a good mix of funny and dramatic moments, and that is important in making a successful reality show.

What did you think of this week's episode of Tough Enough?

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