Linda Miles (real name) came into Tough Enough with an impressive athletic resume. Born in September 1976, the 23-year-old Cincinnati native played Division I college basketball for Rutgers and later tried out for a spot in the WNBA. Miles ranks ninth for career rebounds at Rutgers with 751 and is tied with former teammate Tammy Sutton-Brown for the school record of games played in a career (130). Miles averaged 7.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game over her career from 1997 to 2001 and helped lead Rutgers to the 2000 Final Four. She graduated with a degree in communications and signed a free-agent contract with the WNBA's Seattle Storm, but was cut after three weeks.

Linda Miles earned a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment when she was crowned one of two champions of "Tough Enough 2." There was some controversy over this decision, since one male and one female winner were supposed to be picked. Instead Linda and Jackie Gayda were both picked, much to the dismay, shock, and surprise of the male competitors who had worked just as hard.

"This was a goal of mine for a long time," the former Rutgers University women's basketball standout said in the show's season-finale, broadcast live on MTV from The World restaurant in Times Square. "It's just a tribute to hard work and dedication." "I was really shocked," she told MTV. "I mean, if you could blow up I would have blown up. I was really shocked."

After winning the contest Linda & Jackie were immediately put on TV (June 4, 2002), unlike Nidia, the previous year's Tough Enough winner . Not long after, partially due to a bad televised match that Jackie had with Trish in tag team competition, both women were pulled off TV & sent to the OVW for further training. Jackie debuted rather quickly in OVW, which had everyone wondering where Linda was. Linda answered the question one night while sitting in the crowd and then attacking Jackie on the way to ringside!

On June 12th 2003 (almost one year to the day), Linda Miles re-debuted with the Basham Brothers. Looking hard core, with her riding crop and black leather, it was obvious that this tag team had a no nonsense valet working for them (or working on them)!

In the late summer of 2003, Shaniqua began to establish her dominance over the weaker divas. Shaniqua interfered in several bikini contests, attacking all of the divas except for Sable. She briefly feuded with fellow SmackDown! divas Torrie Wilson, Dawn Marie (even though she remained a heel), and Nidia. Dawn Marie challenged Shaniqua to a singles match in which Shaniqua won by disqualification after interferences from Wilson and Nidia.

In July 2004 Linda was sent to OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling - The WWE "minors") for some "seasoning" and rumors began that she was not fitting in well. There seems to be two different stories as to what happened next between Linda and the WWE in December. One is that she was released and the other is that she stopped attending practice sessions and notified the WWE that she was quitting the company.