How WWE Tough Enough Led AEW's Red Velvet To Become A Pro Wrestler

"WWE Tough Enough" was a reality show that allowed prospective wrestlers a chance at starting their careers, and notably led to veterans John Morrison and Maven breaking into the industry. According to AEW's Red Velvet, the announcement of the show led to her journey of becoming a pro wrestler. During an appearance on Elijah Burke's "The Pope's Point of View" podcast, Velvet explained that a messy breakup and "WWE Tough Enough" led her to leave behind her career as a dancer. "Dance wasn't really satisfying my heart anymore, I just felt stuck, and I turn on the channel, and on the TV at the time it was Daniel Bryan." 

Additionally, she noted that she hadn't watched wrestling in a long time, but that the prospect of getting a chance in WWE without any prior training swayed her into filming a tryout video. "So, I did the Tough Enough video, and per week it's going and they show these little [clips] of people's audition." She also noted that the tryout video was the first time she went by the name Red Velvet.

Sadly for Velvet, WWE opted not to go with her tryout, but this didn't hold her back from continuing her efforts to break into wrestling. "So, I was like, let me do some research, and I had no idea how you become a wrestler, I had only been a fan. At the time, the only school was Team 3D, that was the only thing close enough. I then started searching Miami Florida and LaRosa comes up." Velvet also revealed that on her way to her first training session, she was involved in a car accident in June 2015. Despite this, her training still proceeded in the end, leading to her current tenure in AEW.