WWE Tough Enough

The show came about as a deal WWE made with MTV in early 2000 which was to include: weekly live broadcast of Sunday Night Heat; a reality show contest of pro-wrestling where two winners earn a contract; a fictional narrative movie or TV-movie to star Stone Cold Steve Austin. MTV execs wanted Stone Cold Steve Austin to be the head trainer, but being a main event wrestler on WWE Raw and Smackdown! at the time would not allow him to be a head trainer (although he would some years later be head trainer/host in the rebooted version of Tough Enough for the USA network). The movie starring Stone Cold was developed and scripted as The Marine, but scheduling conflicts and shift in budget priorities did not allow the project to come to fruition. WWE later used the script The Marine to launch their movie studio company (WWE Films) and changed the lead to be John Cena.

Referenced in Wrestling Gold: Before They Were Famous (2002)