Back in 2000, when everyone was trying to find a wacky way to do reality TV, MTV and the WWF got together with their own idea: The Real World combined with the WWF. The groups work together to choose 13 WWF wannabes, MTV provides the house, the WWF provides the training (and trainers and wrestler-type people dropping by) for about 3 months, and the best male and female contestant get a WWF contract. A contract to work in their minor leagues in hopes to go to the WWF, but still a step ahead of thousands of other people who'd like to be there.
The first season was located in Connecticut, to be close to the WWF HQs. Al Snow, Miss Jackie, Tazz and (let go right before the finale) Tori were the trainers. There were 5 female contestants (Paulina, Taylor, Nidia, Bobby Jo and Victoria) and 8 male contestants (Jason, Darryl, Shadrick, Greg, Chris Ni., Chris No., Josh and Maven.) Nidia and Maven were the winners and both are currently on WWFTV but both will soon be sent down.
The episodes were really fun to watch. The really annoying people were cut or left early and the cooler people hung around till the end. They did a great job of getting to know the different people, enough so that you wanted them to succeed (well, most of them.) There was also so much happening that it never felt like they were just pressing to fill out the episode (which seems to happen on other reality TV) but more that they were pressing to fit everything in. (The first season's episodes were a half hour long, except for the first and last.) Also, all the cool backstage stuff that we got to see - wrestlers eating lunch! There was some silly stuff, some "only on TV" stuff (the vacation was a good example) but it was a fun show that got you to care about the characters - more than most of the "real" WWF guys, even.
Taping for Season Two will start early 2002 and will air sometime that Spring. Expect recaps then, unless I can rent the DVDs and watch the bonus footage.