While winning WWE 2015’s Tough Enough contest earned Sarah Lee and Josh Bredl a handsome $250,000 purse, it has ultimately ended in them both being jobless. Lee was released in 2016, but Bredl was let go by WWE this weekend.
Bredl a 26-year old from Thornton, Colorado, was working in WWE’s developmental system as Bronson Matthews. The 6’7″ 290 lbs grappler never truly got started in WWE, as he had yet to even make an appearance in NXT. In fact, Bredl was not even training at the Performance Center due to concussion-related injuries.
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While WWE will be just fine without Bredle, he and Lee’s departure from the company, not even 2-years after winning Tough Enough, is perplexing. But more than anything, the quick releases of this two wrestle represents WWE’s apathy towards the show.
The success of NXT has all but canceled out any niche that Tough Enough could fill. Realistically speaking, most Tough Enough grads, in the rare occasion that they do actually make to WWE’s ring, have proven to be forgettable.
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The Miz represents the ultimate Tough Enough outlier as he is the only alumni to have won a WWE Championship. Other more prominent names include John Hennigan (John Morrison/Nitro) and Ryan Reeves (Ryback). After that, it’s been lower tiered, inconsequential wrestlers. And after the failure to find usage for Lee and Bredle. It’s likely that Taught Enough is gone for good.
In reality, WWE doesn’t really have a need for the competition unless they feel another TV program is necessary. But given the lack of success combined with the effort of running yet another TV program, Tough Enough is dead weight. Most of this year, WWE has made a concerted effort to trim up their budget – they’ve done this by eliminating pyrotechnics and using simple set designs for all shows. They’ve been easy fixes that have mostly gone unnoticed. The euthanization of Tough Enough would have even fewer dissidents.
