We recently spoke to reigning Miss USA Rima Fakih about her experiences on WWE Tough Enough. During the phone conversation, she makes a startling revelation about her exit from the show.
BUZZFOCUS: Hello, Rima. First thing’s first — how are you feeling after your elimination from Tough Enough?
RIMA FAKIH: To tell you the truth, I’m not happy but I’ve feel like accomplished a lot and shattered many stereotypes. But Stone Cold talked to me like a friend. So did Trish and Bill DeMott.
BF: Well, will you continue to pursue a career in wrestling?
RF: Actually, I’m very busy right now. On June 19th I’ll be crowning the new Miss USA at the Planet Hollywood Hotel in Las Vegas. It’ll be live on NBC — please consider that a plug. (Laughs.) I also hope to purse a career in acting. I have a lot of offers on the table.
BF: Are you able to be specific about your offers?
RF: I can only tell you now that i was recently offered to star in a reality show. And last September, I was invited to be a glorified extra on the set of “Real Steel”, the Hugh Jackman robot-boxing movie, which I think that comes out later this year. I saw the amount of work that goes into film production, the long hours on the set. I appreciate what they’re doing and I’d like to do that too.
By the way, Hugh Jackman is a real man. (Laughs.)
BF: Many girls, especially Middle Eastern-American girls, see you as a role model. Will that be a factor as you pursue a career in the entertainment industry?
RF: I don’t see myself as a role model but I’m aware that others see Miss USA as such. I would love to end up like my role model, Angelina Jolie, who uses her celebrity to work for the U.N. and other worthy causes.
BF: Angelina Jolie does make a conscious effort to pick out roles that exemplify strong, thoughtful women, even in mainstream fare like “Wanted”.
RF: Exactly but look, the Miss USA organization is a good organization. They’re like family and I do seek their guidance to make sure I’m not tarnishing the crown. They were behind me one hundred percent when I did Tough Enough, despite the criticism I was receiving.
BF: What kind of criticism?
RF: I’m sure they were inundated with calls from angry mothers wondering why Miss USA was wrestling. I was criticized after winning the crown for not being blonde or blue-eyed; for being the first Arab-American, Muslim Miss USA. You just have to ignore it.
Funny, I was criticized by some Muslim writers, saying that I tarnished my or my family’s reputation for wanting to wrestle. My mother got so mad — and I told her not to do this — she got so mad that she called the editor of the local paper back home in Dearborn, Michigan to tell him off. (Writer’s Note: Dearborn has the largest concentration of Arab- and Muslim-Americans in the country.)
BF: That’s interesting because most Arab-Americans are huge fans of wrestling. The many I’ve talked to were sad to see you leave Tough Enough.
RF: There are three sports Arabs love — soccer, boxing, and wrestling. I’m Lebanese and my sister’s there. She called me up all excited as was like “you’re wrestling?” This was back when I wasn’t suppose to talk about the show, before it starting airing, so I couldn’t indulge her. But now, since I’m off the show, I can tell you a secret. I’m giving you and your readers an exclusive. The reason why my body was sore, why I was crying all of the time was I had three fractured ribs and didn’t want to tell anyone about it.
BF: Geez, you must have been in a lot of pain. How’d you fracture your ribs?
RF: Well, I was training with Bill one-on-one when I was already injured for about a week. And then he sat on me, on the side with the fractured ribs, and I screamed out loudly. He picks me up and is like “Rima, I’m a father with two daughters. I know when they’re in pain so tell me what’s going on.” So I tell him how I fractured my ribs. I tell him that I was in the ring with Michelle, who claimed to have some wrestling experience but it turned out that she didn’t. And it’s dangerous to be in the ring with someone who doesn’t have any experience. So she kept falling on top of me, and falling, and couldn’t roll back properly and cracked my ribs.
BF: Ouch.
RF: So Bill told me “There’s a difference in being strong and in being stupid. Rima, you’re being stupid”. After that, I was eliminated.
BF: So, how are you now?
RF: I’m doing better but ribs take time to heal. The doctor told me that this will be the worst kind of pain I’ll experience but there’s no surgery, no medication to take for it. Ribs heal by themselves but it takes a while. And besides, as Miss USA, I can’t take a day off. It’s not like they can pass the crown to Hillary Clinton while I’m out of commission.
BF: There are no Vice-Miss USAs?
RF: Unfortunately, no. By the way, it feels good to tell you all of this. Please run the story. I want everyone to know the truth, that I wasn’t kicked off of Tough Enough because I couldn’t quite cut it as a wrestler.
BF: That’s very flattering that you chose to share this with us. Thank you, Rima. Feel better.
RF: Just one more quote for you. This is one hundred percent true. Stone Cold Steve Austin said, after my elimination, that “Miss USA is ‘Tough Enough’”
WWE Tough Enough airs Mondays at 8pm (Eastern) on USA. Season finale airs on June 6th.
The Miss USA Pageant will air on June 19th on NBC.
