WWE News: WWE Releases 'Tough Enough' Winner Andy Leavine

In April 2011, the WWE revived its hit reality show Tough Enough for a fifth season, with new host “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and trainers Booker T, Trish Stratus and Bill Demott. 

The show became the target of a lot of criticism because it featured multiple wrestlers who had previously been under contract with the WWE, one of them being Andy Leavine. 

Leavine would eventually go on to win the reboot of Tough Enough and the WWE contract that comes along with it, and it looked like we’d see him on the main roster within the next few years. 

But in a shocking twist, Leavine’s WWE dream has already ended. 

From PWInsider.com (click at your own risk due to possible malware): 

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World Wrestling Entertainment has released the winner of the most recent Tough Enough season Andy Leavine, who was working in WWE developmental as Kevin Hackman. 

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Well, I think this basically confirms my thoughts when Tough Enough ended: Luke Robinson should have won it. 

While Leavine seemed like a hard worker and someone who really wanted to succeed in the wrestling business, I honestly never saw “it” with him. He was just another uncharismatic big man in a business that’s full of them.

Robinson, on the other hand, had the athleticism and the charisma that would have made him a valuable heel in the WWE, and I thought he should have gotten the WWE contract all along. 

But Leavine was given a tremendous advantage, because he was basically already under WWE contract at that point (how dumb is it to put people you’ve already signed on the show?) and was probably just put on Tough Enough as a test to see how much he really wanted it. 

Leavine’s release, however, just goes to show that winning Tough Enough doesn’t indicate whether you will succeed or fail in the wrestling business. 

You can get a WWE contract and become a star without winning the show, while you can win the show and fail to even make it to the main roster. 

I think that’s pretty apparent in the case of Leavine, who was likely released as the WWE’s way of saying, “Hey, we made a mistake.”

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.