WWE Tough Enough 2015: Winners, Recap and Reaction to Season Finale

After 10 weeks, we finally have a male and female winner of Tough Enough. It's been a long and painful journey to get here for both the contestants and the viewers.

The format of the show, voting setup and the way people were nominated for elimination were among the biggest complaints on social media.

However, we did get a few entertaining moments throughout the season. Coaches Billy Gunn and Booker T provided many laughs, and some of the contestants who were eliminated may actually end up in WWE down the road.

The final challenge would be the hardest these men and women have faced to date, as they were put in the ring with Cesaro and Alicia Fox to see if they could last a few minutes in a real match. 

Week 10's Challenge

Before any physical challenges took place, each contestant sat down with Chris Jericho and members of the WWE Creative team to work on their gimmicks.

Josh chose to continue using his Yeti character, ZZ wanted to be the King of the Bayou, Sara wanted her name to be Hope after the town she is from, and Amanda just wanted to play herself with a slightly altered name.

Amanda was given the unenviable task of performing first against Alicia Fox. The crowd got behind her quite a bit, but that doesn't mean everything she did was flawless. You can't expect her to be a pro after less than three months of training, but she did better than expected.

Sara's match was up next. She gave a decent promo before it got started, but she clearly wasn't as comfortable in the ring as Amanda. The judges gave her some compliments on her promo, but they didn't seem impressed with her ring work.

ZZ was the first to compete for the men. Daniel Bryan had some nice things to say about his performance, but Paige and The Miz criticized his entrance and his work ethic, respectively.

Josh was the final competitor to have a match in front of the live crowd. While he had a few missteps like everyone else, his bout was easily the most entertaining of the bunch. Nobody gave an abysmal performance, but it was clear Josh and Amanda picked things up faster than Sara and ZZ.

In the Studio and Back at the Barracks

As usual, there was drama between Amanda and Sara in the barracks. Amanda called Sara a ring rat last week, and she continued to say that Sara was trying to sleep her way into a contract.

It's hard to tell if any of this is true or if Amanda is just trying to get in Sara's head, but either way, Amanda got under her skin just like she wanted to.

They later found out they would be facing Cesaro and Alicia Fox instead of each other in their final challenge, which was a match in the studio in front of the live audience and those watching at home.

Winners: Sara and Josh

For some reason, the voting for the women took place halfway through the show instead of at the end. After Sara and Amanda performed against Fox, the polls were open.

However, Chris Jericho pulled a fast one on all of us and revealed the winner would be named at the end of the show.

Triple H came out to personally present the winners with their new contracts. When the votes were tallied, Sara Lee was named the winner. Amanda definitely performed at a higher level, but Sara's popularity was too much for her to overcome.

As for the men, Josh crushed ZZ with 70 percent of the votes to become the winner. You could tell the judges and coaches all felt the right man won in the end, but it was hard to tell how they felt about Sara getting the victory.

Tough Talk

The final episode of Tough Talk featured a lot of people. The stage was packed with the four finalists, judges, coaches, hosts and Triple H, and every single person had something to say.

Despite winning, Sara was on the receiving end of continued criticism from the judges and coaches. The one person who came to her defense was Triple H. He made some great points about how charisma is different for everyone, and if Sara connects with the fans enough to get the votes, then she has it.

Obviously Amanda wasn't too pleased about losing, but she got some words of encouragement from everyone on the stage to keep her spirits up.

Just about everyone agreed that Josh deserved to win. The difference between the men and women was that ZZ had nice things to say about Josh, while Amanda didn't give Sara a single compliment.

Interesting Tidbits

• ZZ's impression of a baby alligator sounded more like a small bird.
• Billy Gunn loves his megaphone.
• Byron Saxton is not a good ring announcer at all. He doesn't speak loudly enough.
• One of the bumps Amanda took from Fox looked botched, but she got right back up, so it must not have been that bad.
• Was anyone else surprised to see Amanda pull out a headscissor takedown?
• The before and after pictures of ZZ looked almost exactly the same.
• ZZ's gator headdress was so hard to balance that he had to hold it in place with his hand the whole time.
• Josh's outfit was ridiculous. Once he removed the fur he was wearing, it looked like all he had on was a pair of underwear. Not having knee and elbow pads makes a wrestler look a lot more naked.
• For anyone who thinks the voting was fixed, it wasn't actually WWE that counted the votes. The credits for the show state a company called Telescope Inc. was in charge of it.
• It was great hearing Jericho name drop Jeff Hardy on WWE television.

Final Thoughts

It's been a weird season for Tough Enough, but it's finally at an end. While you might not feel the right people won, what we have to remember is that these people are rookies in every sense of the word.

For those of you who watched The Miz during his season, nobody ever would have pegged him as a future star, and he ended up becoming WWE champion. It just goes to show you that hard work and passion can get you a long way in this business.

What's even more important to remember is something Chris Jericho said during the finale. The wrestling business as a whole is a popularity contest, so people shouldn't discount the winners just because they won due to likability.

After all, if skill was the only factor in success, Lance Storm would have been a world champion many times over by now.

Now we just have to wait and see if Sara or Josh ends up making it to NXT and the main roster or if they fizzle out like the majority of past winners have.

What do you think? Did the right people win? Who do you think should have won if not Sara and Josh?

Thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter @BR_Doctor.