Hank Avery Reacts to His Tough Enough Elimination, Talks How People Are Portrayed on the Show, Paige Taking Him the Wrong Way and More

Brian Fritz of SportingNews.com interviewed WWE Tough Enough participant Hank Avery, who was the first to be eliminated from the show, and below are some interview highlights:

Sporting News: How surprised are you that you’re already off Tough Enough?

Hank: Well, I’ll a little shocked still but at the end of the day, it’s not about what I think but it’s about what the judges thought and America. That’s why I’m not there.

S/N: After watching the show, did you think you would even be included in the bottom three and could be voted off?

Hank: No, not really. The show is called “Tough Enough” and I thought I proved myself in those challenges so I was very surprised. I kind of got labeled as a bad guy. I’m sure Paige probably thinks I’m a sexist now. (laughs) That’s not who I am. I think every show needs a bad guy. I’m from the south. I grew up ‘yes ma’am, no ma’am’ and always looked up to my mother and my grandmother and my wife and daughter are so supportive. So to be kind of taken in that direction on the show left me flabbergasted so to speak. I’m disappointed. I think to not be disappointed would be disappointing in yourself. I don’t think I should have been in the bottom three but life doesn’t always roll the way you want it to. You just have to learn to take the punches on the chin and keep going.

S/N: What was it like being there with the other contestants and in front of the judges along with the audience watching the show and seeing how everything played out and what they put on the television show?

Hank: They literally filmed for a whole week and to get that much film in an hour segment is challenging. You don’t really see the full identity of an individual. You just see what’s shown on the screen at home. I wish they would have had a two hour special or a three hour special. Some people are already labeled as the cocky one or the arrogant one. ZZ is labeled as the funny one. They got it right with some and some they didn’t. To be in front of the judges and to see that, it was kind of disheartening in a way because Paige got a glimpse of what I was saying and I think she took it the wrong way. The judges only see what’s put up on the show. They’re not with us day in and day out like Booker T and Billy Gunn are and Lita. To have Paige, Daniel Bryan and Hulk Hogan see what they were being shown — it was a tough pill to swallow because you have so much more to prove and so much more to show.