Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge: The only daytime TV show you need as a student

As a student, you live for daytime TV as a solace for the hungover state you normally find yourself in midweek. The Broken Skull Challenge offers the best of mindless TV available on Dave and UKTV on demand, presented by the epitome of the American Dream, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, which is both hilarious and enthralling. In fact, we're amazed the world has slept on this for so long.

Think Total Wipeout in the desert but with more fighting, trash-talking, and a former WWE wrestler as the presenter instead of scrawny man-child Richard Hammond. The challenge is between eight competitors and split into four rounds. Normally, the first round involves some sort of convoluted fighting scenario and a lot of screaming.

What better way to show off your physical power than by putting a bloke in a headlock in a makeshift sandpit?

The competitor who defeats their opponents in the first three rounds gets the honour of taking on the Skullbreaker for the chance to win £10,000. Although this sounds like Ninja Warrior, the entertainment value is incredible, and here's why.

The insane contestants

This show seems to attract the widest variety of psychopaths and roid heads we have ever seen. It displays a parody of Americans that only WWE has ever equalled. When we were children, we dreamed of seeing this many psychos on one screen. The intensity is unmatched. These people may be on the screen, but the eye contact they maintain in the close-up shots feels like they are looking into your soul. They are what I see when I wake up with sleep paralysis.

Their intensity is so fierce, that some contestants have been immortalised in our minds. One such contestant, Psycho Chris, spent over half of his camera time screaming at everyone and everything, after "unleashing and exploding" on his rival Johnny.

Stone Cold has quite an open-door policy to the competition, meaning that anyone can take part. In an era of equality, it's great to see that both female and male nutjobs can attempt to defeat the Skullbreaker, and kill a few of their peers on the way.

The infamous 'psycho' Chris

Catchphrases and trash-talking

This shows unintentional hilarity comes primarily from cringe-inducing trash-talking and quotable catchphrases. Testosterone-infused Americans knocking 20 IQ points out of each other makes for some outrageous statements, and there's no satisfaction like seeing psychopaths eat their own words.

Occasionally Steve chooses to treat the audience to one of his undoubtedly infinite pearls of wisdom. Did you know that "human beings are not spiders", or that it's possible to be "busier than a one-legged cat in a sandbox"?

Every time a contestant leaves the ranch, Steve offers his condolences and blesses them with the ambiguous but heartfelt saying "see you… down the road". But what is down the road? We don't think anyone knows apart from big Steve.

It shows the fitness levels we as students will never reach

Having essays to do and numerous trips to the pub getting in the way of our lives of fitness, it's something to aspire to. To be honest, the student diet means that we're never going to reach these levels of athleticism, but at least we can see people put their strength to the test and batter the living shit out of each other for our entertainment in the middle of the Californian desert.

I mean, Stone Cold doesn't always show off his physical prowess, he leaves that to the contestants, most notably when he heckles them while driving behind them in a golf buggy as they run down a "big ass" hill with a log on their shoulders.

So to conclude, we believe that this television masterpiece has lacked the recognition it deserves. The ability to take itself so seriously whilst being able to make us cry with laughter is an attribute that should be rewarded.

Although the show has now been cancelled (a moment of silence please), the Broken Skull Challenge deserves to see its place cemented in daytime TV's essentials, with the likes of The Chase and Homes Under The Hammer.