The 5 Tough Enough contestants who made it big in the main roster

The 6th Season is dated to begin on June 23rd

Despite the numerous instances of villainous bossery, both on and off TV, that Vince McMahon has been responsible for, he has proven himself to be a shrewd businessman. Realising the marketing potential of pro-wrestling was one thing, but McMahon knew how to customise the product in order for it to reach the mainstream audience. Evidentially, Monday Night Raw is the longest running weekly episodic on TV and is likely to hold on to that record for a long time to come.

However without merely restricting the scope of marketing to pro-wrestling, realizing the marketability in the process that one follows to being a WWE Superstar was a master-stroke. The recently revived Tough Enough show stands testament to that. With Chris Jericho set to host the upcoming edition that features Hulk Hogan, Daniel Bryan and Paige as judges, interest in the show is sure to spike.

Over the completed 5 seasons of the show, various hopefuls have tried to navigate their way through a grueling process in order to make it to the big time – a full time WWE contract. Here then, is a look at 5 Tough Enough contestants who went on to have careers in the WWE.

Cameron

Cameron’s participation in Tough Enough season 5 was short lived. In fact, she was the first person to be eliminated but the WWE signed her on a developmental contract promptly following her elimination from the competition. Befuddled?

Maybe the WWE were just impressed with her originality, to be fair to her. She did manage to make a mark in her brief appearance on the show when she infamously replied “Melina and Alicia Fox” on being asked by Stone Cold about her favourite match of all time in the WWE.

I wonder if the next contestant to be short-routed to a WWE deal should say his favourite match of all time was The Miz versus John Cena. Beats me.

Remember him? He might still have turned out better than Michael Cole had the WWE continued with him

Josh Matthews

Now a play by play commentator for TNA, Josh Matthews is a familiar face for viewers who have been following the WWE product for a respectable period of time. After finishing as the runner-up in the inaugural Tough Enough season, Josh Matthews was never really considered for a full time wrestling role apparently due to his diminutive frame.

However that did not stop him from regularly appearing in Smackdown as a back-stage interviewer who also stepped up to do commentary when required. He was also memorably mauled by Brock Lesnar once.

Recently Josh Mathews was in the news for knocking the hypocrisy displayed by WWE in not changing Samoa Joe’s name after signing him up to NXT. If the WWE did not acknowledge TNA, why use the Samoa Joe name that was made famous in TNA for a decade before he signed on to NXT? Fair point Josh.