British Boot Camp 2 hits the States as the final six took more steps on their road to TNA.
These next few episodes are a little shorter – dropping to half an hour in length. Let’s get going! Spud’s in front of the Lincoln Memorial with the finalists to open the show… and after titles, we get profile pieces.
First up: Mark Andrews gets a potted history of his tryout, with his rap, and some unaired footage from after his tryout match in York Hall. There’s PROGRESS clips of Andrews against Jimmy Havoc… and then we move onto Kay Lee Ray, who may not have won her tryout match, but still came away with the call to the next phase. Rampage Brown gets one, with Jeremy Borash’s voiceover suggesting he “squeezed” through to the London tryouts, while Noam Dar’s profile didn’t mention the circumstances behind his qualifying.
Dave Mastiff and Grado round out the set, complete with a recap of how Grado got back in. Oh, and we get the singalong of Madonna that they edited out of the tryouts show…
We cut to Nashville, as Rockstar Spud and Dixie Carter meet with the finalists. Good to see Andrews and Mastiff going with the belt and braces look – in negative colours! Dixie asks them about the finals, before she threw a softball on Grado’s issues. Asking about personality, Dixie held up Spud as a shining light, and mentioned that the winner of this series had to surpass him. The final six are sent to Washington DC, since we had the Nashville tourism stuff in the first series, as the crew were going to work as they’d be put in matches to help decide who’d go through.
After a break, we’re told that “if” they make it to the final three, Mark Andrews would face DJ Z, Rampage would face Bram, with Noam Dar vs. Austin Aries, Kay Lee Ray vs. Gail Kim, Dave Mastiff vs. Samoa Joe and Grado vs. EC3 rounding off the list. I was expecting Al Snow! The final three would then meet Dixie again at her home before finding out the winner of the series. The crew will be travelling across the States in a motor home. Cue hijinx! Dixie seems a little sad that nobody stood out during dinner, so things are wide open as they’re driven to DC… but cabin fever seemed to set in early, as Dave Mastiff complained that some of them “needed their arses wiping for them,” as they continue to build up Grado as a clown.
The child-like character’s continued some more as Mastiff called Grado “easily-led”, as he continued to prat around… but at least he had some pride, as he said he didn’t want to let down the UK fans who supported them.
Up next: we’re in Washington, DC. For some reason, Grado is in his gear. Spud’s giving a guided tour, even though he “doesn’t know his arse from his elbow,” as Mastiff had to forcibly correct him multiple times. Andrews tells us that the “older” Rampage and Mastiff have had the novelty wear off quickly, and we get grumpy Dave giving comments as he tells us he’ll let Grado fall into his own traps as the episode closed out.
In hindsight, this felt like a throwaway episode – although they thankfully did something more than just show their holiday videos here, as they perhaps went a little too on-the-nose with giving away how Grado was being pictured as a sympathetic-yet-childish figure here.