Josh Bredl (left) returned to CSU-Pueblo for the football team’s season opener. | Photo by Dustin Cox
On the campus of Colorado State University-Pueblo during the football team’s season opener, many community members reported a yeti sighting.
CSU-Pueblo alumnus Josh Bredl, known to fans of the USA network’s reality series, “WWE’s Tough Enough” as “The Yeti”, came out to support CSU-Pueblo football, as well as to take pictures and sign autographs with many of the fans who supported him and voted for him throughout his course on the show.
A fan-favorite turned local celebrity, Bredl embraced conversation with current players, fans and alumni, all while screams of “yeti!” followed the former Pack defensive lineman throughout the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl.
In a challenge of physical and mental strength, endurance, likability, and of course, toughness, Bredl outlasted all other male competitors and won a $250,000 contract with the WWE, with a resounding 70 percent of fan votes on Aug. 25.
“It was crazy. It was definitely very unique, something new to me, but I definitely rose to the occasion and came home with the W,” Bredl said.
As for his unique nickname, “I got that about 9th grade, it was just something I had it wasn’t really a ‘Tough Enough’ gimmick or anything,” Bredl said. “Here at CSU-Pueblo everyone called me the yeti too. It was something I acquired in high school as a upperclassman that just stuck and I rode it out.”
As a member of CSU-Pueblo’s 2014 Division II National Championship football team, Bredl developed many of the skills and abilities that helped push him through his time on the show.
“(Football) definitely builds that mental threshold and mental toughness you need to stay resilient through adverse situations, going through dirty dozens and spring ball is really tough and that’s one of the reasons I’m ‘Tough Enough’,” Bredl said.
Bredl won the reality show
“WWE’s Tough Enough” in August. | Photo courtesy of WWE.
Although his time on the show is now over, Bredl’s future in the WWE has just begun. After the game, he headed to Florida to start his career there.
“I’m moving out to Orlando on Monday, I’m gonna start another show on Wednesday and I’m gonna start practicing ASAP and getting in the mix,” Bredl said.
Bredl will then join with the WWE’s developmental branch NXT, where he will further hone his skills in order to pursue his dream of being a WWE superstar.
“I’ll start doing the local shows and the Florida loop, and then in December we have the NXT UK takeover in London. I’m excited for that and then its gonna just start snowballing from there,” he said.