WWE Tough Enough came back in the summer of 2015 on the USA Network. WWE fans were instantly interested because Tough Enough used to be a great show on MTV years ago, during a much more young adult/adult period in WWE history. WWE did bring the same show back in 2011, but it just didn’t work, mainly because it felt like WWE was not allowing for fans to choose and they went who with they wanted to win — which ended up being a guy already signed to the WWE!
This meant a new format had to be added when it returned. WWE was going to do a live broadcast each week with a three-person judging panel. One legend, and two active performers, one male and one female. The legend was Hulk Hogan, and the two stars used were Paige and Daniel Bryan. When Hogan got into a bit of trouble due to some racial comments that got out, he was replaced with The Miz, who ended up making “questionable” decisions.
People were put in the bottom three each week, and fans would vote live to see who went home and who stayed. It was a good format for the most part, but certainly had its problems. This is why USA didn’t choose to bring it back. However, two winners came out of this who had some promise. One being Josh “The Yeti” Bredl as the male winner and the other was Sara Lee, the female winner. As part of the win, both earned a $250,000 WWE contract.
Clearly, WWE wanted some to win and some not to. WWE wanted Mandy Rose to win the female spot, but they were very happy when Josh won the male spot, as ZZ was one guy that fans loved but WWE knew didn’t have what it took to succeed. He was still given a deal to see, but it wasn’t as lucrative. He was released this year, and now it appears Sara Lee has been, too.
According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Sara Lee was notified on Friday that she was released from her WWE contract. This is a little over a year after she signed her big deal with WWE. She had made her in-ring NXT debut earlier this year, and she showed a lot of promise due to what WWE expected versus what she gave. She ended up gaining a lot of muscle and getting into insane shape.
Apparently, WWE didn’t feel right about keeping her on, but it may not have been anything to do with what she showed them in her developmental training. A picture was recently released by Sara Lee that indicated that she was pregnant. In the picture below, you can see her holding up a book about “expecting” and an additional family member on top of a May, 2017, due date.
She is currently in a relationship with former NXT Tag Team Champion Wesley Blake. The two will have a new member to the family in May, which by our count is seven months from now, and she very well could have found out in the last month. WWE may have felt that she was not worth keeping around for now and as a new mom, she would need to be kept away from the WWE for a while.
With WWE never truly liking Sara Lee and wanting Mandy Rose to end up as the winner, it does make sense that they would not wait for her to get back into training. WWE also feels, in some ways, it is irresponsible for things like this to occur with their female talent. For someone like Kharma, who managed to also get pregnant in her initial run with WWE, she at least had experience on her side. WWE also felt they would do business with her again, so letting her go only to bring her back later was an option for sure.
She chose to leave WWE, which was why her contract was terminated long ago. She ended up sadly having a miscarriage, which led to some depression issues and things of that nature. So it did make some sense that she needed time away. Obviously, Sara Lee did not have all of this on her side with the WWE. She very well could have asked for her release and was called to have it granted to her. However, it does seem like WWE just needed a reason to release her and finally had one. We shall see what comes from this.
