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Mandy Rose has come a long way since her Tough Enough days. Rose was the runner-up on the sixth season of Tough Enough, which incidentally happened to be the last one. It took place in the middle of 2015.
Rose was the runner-up to eventual winner Sara Lee, while Josh Bredl won the men's edition. Looking back, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville are the only two participants of that season's Tough Enough who are still signed to WWE.
The other two notable participants were Patrick Clark (Velveteen Dream) and Chelsea Green -- both of whom were released. It was at Tough Enough where Rose met Deville, who would go on to become her best friend.
During Mandy Rose's time at Tough Enough, she admitted that she didn't see eye-to-eye with one of the main judges, Paige. She adopted the name Mandy Rose, and played a dislikeable heel character.
Speaking to Lilian Garcia on the Chasing Glory podcast, Rose revealed why Paige was so critical of her on Tough Enough:
"It was more of the fact that she would judge me that I didn't know how to wrestle, which I didn't know how to wrestle at that time because I came from a fitness background; I didn't have any pro-wrestling experience. That was the biggest thing, and I think that I am very different than Paige.
Rose elaborated that because she was perceived as a diva, it put a bigger chip on her shoulder when it came to proving herself.
Mandy Rose also said that Paige never got to know her personally, which may have added to the heat between them. They would eventually align in 2017 along with Sonya Deville to form a faction known as Absolution.
Mandy Rose's success and resurgence
Mandy Rose has been involved in some highly-featured storylines on the WWE main roster, most notably with Otis and against her real-life best friend Sonya Deville.
Rose eventually moved back to NXT, where she is currently leading the Toxic Attraction faction. She experienced her first championship success in WWE at Halloween Havoc 2021, beating Raquel Gonzalez to win the NXT Women's Championship.
