And Then There was One: Andy Leavine Wins ‘Tough Enough’

After months of waiting, Andy Leavine was crowned the winner of this season’s “Tough Enough.”

However, not all was good on the television set.

While the episode itself was watchable, the WWE dropped the ball by not showing the full matches both Andy Leavine and Luke Robinson had that played a part in choosing a winner.

Even with an appearance by Vince McMahon, the finale felt like a letdown.

Leavine was even forced to take a slap from McMahon and a stunner from Austin. As a result, the humanity was robbed from the moment. In the end, it was made to look like a carnival act.

Leavine was buried before his first real match.

Nevertheless, it’s still sad to see the show come to an end for now.

In spite of steering clear of elimination throughout the entire competition, Leavine never truly wowed the trainers or Stone Cold Steve Austin. Instead, he was sound throughout and made sure to show what he had when the time was right. He was obviously helped by his size and dedication as well. That passion was reinforced in the workout segment, where his wife was right by his side throughout.

Leavine’s situation was quite the opposite from Robinson’s, who from day one showed the trainers he had the charisma and proficiency in the ring to at least get by in the WWE. However, his cockiness and ego-driven personality often got the best of him. In the finale, Robinson’s segments felt a bit staged. From the scene where he was on a boat with his friends, to the crying episode with his mother, he didn’t come off authentic.

To have Ricky Steamboat on the finale was a nice touch. The Dragon put both Leavine and Robinson through the paces and it was interesting to see him work with them. At the same time, it was even better to see Bill DeMott back in the ring with the rookies, even for a short time. During the first episode of the show, he told the noobs that they’d have to go through him to get to the WWE.

He wasn’t kidding.

After both faced off against him in their five-minute exhibition match, it was tough to know who Stone Cold was going to award the contract to. That was mainly due to the fact that the WWE didn’t show either one of the matches. Instead, they showed small snippets of both. The questions here are, were both of these guys too green to show their full matches? What did the fans miss? Are these guys truly capable of performing in the WWE?

At this point, the answers are still uncertain.

However, from Robinson’s facial expressions, it appears he didn’t perform the way he would have liked. Once the show went live, it was obvious Robinson under-performed, as the trainers all felt Leavine was the better of the two.

Austin ultimately felt the same, but only time will tell if Leavine will be able to cut the mustard in the WWE.