Every WWE Tough Enough Winner: Where Are They Now?
1. Sara Lee (2015)
Then: Fellow 2015 winner Sara Lee earned a $250,000 contract that guaranteed her at least 12 months on WWE's books, but she didn't last in the company after beating out everyone from Mandy Rose to Sonya Deville. Management decided to release Lee in 2016, and she wouldn't wrestle again outside the promotion.
Away from the ring, her story is bleak, so please be warned.
Now: Sara died aged just 30 years old in September 2022. She'd been married to former WWE peer Wesley Blake since 2017, and they had 3 kids together. In 2023, coroners revealed that Lee had died by suicide by overdosing on alcohol and sleeping pills.
Yeah, what a horrible story and a sad conclusion to this retrospective on WWE's Tough Enough winners.
Sara didn't actually work a match away from Tough Enough or NXT house shows. She didn't grace the ring on NXT television or on top shows like Raw and SmackDown either. The last ever TE winner (at least for now, but LFG makes it unlikely the show will return any time in the near future) left after just a year in the company, then had a tragic end to her life away from wrestling.
Wrestling fans and critics alike mourned for her friends and family. It's still shocking that someone so young suffered such a depressing end.
What do you remember most about WWE Tough Enough? For more wrestling, check out 12 Super Weird Quirks Unique To ONE Wrestler and 25 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Ruthless Aggression PPV!