In June 2015, Matthews, under his real name Josh Bredl, was announced as one of the thirteen finalists for the sixth season of the WWE competition Tough Enough. After being at risk of elimination three times throughout the course of the competition, on August 25, Bredl was chosen by fan vote as one of the winners, along with Sara Lee, earning a $250,000 one-year contract with WWE. During the final, Bredl adopted the ring name The Yeti, and lost a singles match to Cesaro. In September, Bredl was assigned to WWE's developmental territory NXT, based at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, to begin training. At an NXT live event on December 3, 2015, Bredl made his first appearance for NXT, where he revealed that his new ring name was Bronson Matthews. On November 5, 2017, Matthews was released from his WWE contract.