A few weeks back, IGN had a chance to visit the sweeping vistas of USA network's newest season/incarnation of the wrestling reality series, WWE Tough Enough . Filmed in Simi Valley, Calif. at the ridiculously gorgeous Spanish-style Hummingbird Nest Ranch, Tough Enough gives 14 WWE hopefuls a chance to win an official contract as a WWE Superstar or Diva by putting them through hellacious physical and mental training at the hands of host " Stone Cold" Steve Austin and trainers Trish Stratus Booker T and ring-guru Bill DeMott

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We've already posted a few interviews from the set already. So be sure to check 'em out!WWE Tough EnoughEarly on in the day, we spoke to the trainers and got to ask all our questions before the cast stumbled -- sore and battered -- from their beds and made their way down to the estate's horse stables, which had been magically transformed into a state of the art training facility, complete with regulation WWE ring.Right off to the side of the ring was Stone Cold's office/deliberation chamber, where he and the other trainers regularly met to discuss the progress of the contestants. The office was "classic" Austin, complete with dead animals and vintage road signs, giving the entire area a dusty, saloon-type feel. But how did these digs compare to his own Broken Skull ranch back in Texas?"Man, the Broken Skull Ranch is a little bit different than this," Austin said. "If we had a Tough Enough at the Broken Skull Ranch, they'd have to damn sure be tough because there's nothing out there but heat, thorns and mosquitoes and everything that grows will cut you, stick you or hurt you. It's in south Texas, and it's known as the Brush Country. And it's called the Brush Country for a good reason because it's just tough country."This is a world class horse facility," Austin said of the Tough Enough ranch. "There's a big mansion over there. This ring is the real McCoy, that's what the WWE superstars bounce around in on a night-in, night-out basis. There's a couple of guest houses over there where we've got the production people set up. I've got my own house over there all to myself. I bring my dog, Hershey, to work with me. I got an electric golf cart I ride around the grounds back here in the mountains. It's a world class facility, and I don't think they could have picked a better place for the opening round of Tough Enough."Austin, of course, absolutely loved the office they had set up for him. "If I had an office like that in my house [laughs] -- that is one of my goals, when I get the Broken Skull Ranch completed, to have an office like that. I will say, half the stuff you see in there is mine. The safes, the shark, the clocks, the neon -- the bar sign, some of the bronze sculptures, and a lot of that stuff in the road signs. I collect traffic signs as well. I'm an antiques guy. A lot of that stuff is mine. If I had an office like that in my house, I would not leave."So how will this season of Tough Enough compare to the MTV seasons back in the early Aughts? One of the things that many fans wondered about is how much will this series "pull back the curtain" on the sports entertainment/wrestling business. Thanks to autobiographies and reality TV, everything was transparent back in the "Attitude Era" and at the turn of the century. The modern-era WWE doesn't seem to be in the practice of revealing trade secrets."We have a consulting producer that if he thinks we're drawing the curtain back too far, you know, he just sort of says it, and I don't really question it," said showrunner-executive producer Eric Van Wagenen. "Certainly we want WWE and the executives there to feel comfortable with what we're showing. To me, [Tough Enough] is about these personal stories that these people have. It's a hard life. It's a really hard lifestyle, and it's hard to break through that, much like any kind of professional sport, and in particular something that's so sort of personal and you walk out into that ring practically naked and you expose yourself; you know, emotionally you do."

Is it really the bottom line because Stone Cold says so? Find out on page 2…