No doubt, WWE wrestler Ashley Massaro can handle herself in the ring.
But the real question is: How can she handle herself in the wild — as in China? Massaro is one of the castaways on “Survivor: China,” which launches at 7 p.m. Thursday on CBS.
“I actually went crazy trying to train as much as possible,” said Massaro, who also appeared on the cover and inside the April issue of Playboy. “I just brushed up on my outdoor skills a little bit, practiced with a flint and all that stuff.”
Massaro is one of 16 contestants who were left to fend for themselves in China in a quest to win $1 million.
“One of the funny things,” Massaro said, “is I had never been camping before. But I am an outdoorsy type.”
As part of her crash-training for the show, Massaro said she sat out in the rain before she headed off to China, figuring at some point she’d have to experience that during the show.
“Really, all I could do was brush up on being outside, that was the main thing, going outside for a really long time,” she said.
Massaro has been with the WWE since 2005, where she won the Raw Diva Search. She has been traveling with the WWE nearly 300 days a year ever since. She floated the idea of getting on “Survivor” to the folks at the WWE. They learned casting was going on, and Massaro’s run on “Survivor” began. She had about 10 days from finding out she was on to leaving for the set.
Massaro said she went into the show hoping no one would figure out who she was.
“I intended on them not knowing right away,” she said. “I thought it might be better if I was just your average person.”
She already had a pretty good job and loads of attention, so why go traipsing around the wilderness?
“Why not?” she said. “It’s an adventure. It’s something not a lot of people get to do.”
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Survivor
7 P.M. CBS
The 15th season of broadcast TV’s longest-running reality show makes history by shooting in China. Another new twist: The winning tribe of every reward challenge will be able to kidnap someone from the losing tribe, only to return the victim following the immunity challenge. Those kidnapped will also carry a clue to the abducting tribe’s immunity idol that he will give to one person only.