Between season 5 of Tough Enough streaming on the WWE Network and season 6 premiering in the next few weeks, Luke Robinson provides a timely account of his experience as a contestant in an exclusive interview with PWF Empire Live
Among the behind-the-scenes details revealed, Luke discusses the homophobia (caused by gay porn rumors) and politics that lead to him losing to Andy Leavine in the Tough Enough season 5 finals. The interview can be found at this link, or viewed in the player on the last page, and the following are some highlights:
Political maneuvering and a crude campaign of homophobia that lead to his loss in the finals:
About two weeks before we were flown to Florida for the FCW taping, I get a call from the executive producer. He goes “Who’s Donnie Drake? What’s this Donnie Drake stuff?”
After college, I worked for two companies that market what they call ‘custom videos to a homosexual audience.’ I’m fully-clothed in normal wrestling gear, there’s no sex acts, no nudity, (just suggestive holds, nothing that you couldn’t see on Monday Night RAW). They wanted attractive guys with muscles and they market it to a homosexual audience. I put it on my background check … it wasn’t a secret. I never compromised my morals or values.
You know when you’re a babyface selling? You’re crawling up the heel, using his kneepads and tights to pull yourself up. Someone made a crude photoshop picture that got passed around… (on the internet it got distorted to ‘Luke did gay porn’).
WWE’s hypocritical public stance on philanthropy (including directly accusing John Laurinaitis of homophobia):
(A buddy of Luke’s) was trying out in FCW, he was down there when John Laurinaitis was down there. (A couple of weeks after the Tough Enough finale, people were asking) “What happened to that Luke Robinson kid from Tough Enough?”
My buddy called me and said the direct quote from John Laurinaitis was “We don’t need any of that homo sh*t here…”
That was four years ago, and obviously you have Darren Young now. Now they use some of this PR stuff in a positive light to paint the picture that they’re a very philanthropic company. Stephanie McMahon’s admitted in an interview with Forbes that ‘the future of marketing is philanthropy’. I’m not saying it’s not wonderful that they promote the anti-bullying and Make A Wish, but the fact is there’s a lot of bullying and bad things that go on behind the stage.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
