Survivor Report
September 20, 2007
Report by Andre Polizzi of San Jose, Calif.

WWE Diva Ashley Massaro struggled mightily, but narrowly escaped eviction on the season premiere of CBS's "Survivor: China." Ashley is one of eight members, now seven, of the Zhan Hu (Fighting Tiger) tribe. She appeared to be one of Zhan Hu's strongest members when the 16 people were divided into two tribes at the beginning of the episode, but she was felled by a stomach ailment on day two. She had chills and felt sick to her stomach. She hacked and gagged numerous times, but never threw up, probably since she hadn't eaten anything yet.

Ashley was worried people would notice that she wasn't able to do much, but confidently told the cameras she would be fine. She pulled it together on day three for the immunity challenge: The Dragon Dance, a race between the two tribes, carrying a Chinese parade dragon on poles through a maze, up a ramp, and figuring out a puzzle of the poles at the end. Ashley's tribe was a step behind the Fei Long (Flying Dragon) tribe most of the way, and struggled badly as a team to solve the pole puzzle. After the loss, Zhan Hu went to Tribal Council and Ashley's fears were realized as her tribemates pointed out her lack of help around camp. Asked about it by host Jeff Probst, Ashley defended herself, and promised her tribemates that she was feeling better, that they would see more from her, and that they should definitely keep her.

Fortunately for Ashley, five of her tribemates voted out 48-year-old Steve Morris, nicknamed Chicken, a cranky farmer from Virginia. Ashley received two votes and is definitely going to need to step it up next week (days four through six) or she might be gone next. Interestingly, she didn't help her own cause at Tribal Council either, as she cast a stray vote for Peih-Gee, an annoying female Zhan Hu member. In addition to stepping it up, Ashley needs to immediately start building solid relationships with her tribemates.

In scenes from next week's second episode: Ashley appears to continue battling with her own tribe members, especially a bartender named Dave. One of next week's challenges appears to be very physical as Ashley is seen throwing a Fei Long member around in muddy water.

Looks like this season of Survivor may wind up being as entertaining as some of the best ones, including Borneo, (the first one won by Richard Hatch) Austrailia, (The Outback with Tina, Colby, and crazy Jerri) Pearl Islands, (Rupert was the star, got backstabbed) and last season's Fiji (won by Earl after unlikely hero Yao-man was backstabbed by his tribemate Dreamz who he gave a car to). Next week should be very entertaining. Hopefully Ashley will pull it together and stick around awhile.

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