Tiffany Stratton did not expect to debut on WWE TV so quickly

NXT 2.0's Tiffany Stratton speaks about her start in pro wrestling along with learning under Greg Gagne and Ken Anderson

Photo Courtesy: WWE

Tiffany Stratton speaks about her journey to WWE.

In the fall of 2021, Tiffany Stratton made her WWE in-ring debut. She started on the 205 Live program, now known as NXT Level Up. In December, she made her NXT 2.0 in-ring debut.

The 23-year-old Stratton mapped out her road to WWE while on El Brunch de WWE. She shared that she did not expect to debut on TV as quickly as she did and is enjoying her time as a part of NXT 2.0.

So I didn’t really — so I had my tryout for WWE back in May, last May and I didn’t really hear anything for a couple of weeks and then I got the email about a month after my tryout and it was over Zoom and I was very happy and it was a very good moment.

I feel very good [being in NXT 2.0]. I did not expect for me to be put on to TV so quickly. I started at the P.C. and at the end of August, like the beginning of September and I debuted at the middle of December and I did not expect that to happen so I am very blessed and I feel very fortunate that I was able to debut so quickly with only being at the P.C. for a couple of months.

The first-ever NXT Women’s Breakout tournament was won by Roxanne Perez. She bested Tiffany Stratton in the finals. In the semifinal round, Stratton bested Fallon Henley which is a match she feels helped her career and is a ‘breakout’ match for her.

That match, I feel like with Fallon [Henley in the NXT Women’s Breakout tournament], I really feel like it was one of my breakout matches. I feel like I showcased a lot of my talent and a lot of what I can bring to the table in that match and I really feel like that match was something that really helped my career. So I feel very, very good about that match. One of my favorites.

She detailed how she got into the wrestling business. Tiffany’s mother got her in contact with former AWA and WWF talent Greg Gagne, who took a look at her to see how she moved around the ring. Stratton then started training under Ken Anderson and has been in the business ever since.

So back when I was little, my dad and I, we would watch WWE together and I actually got into gymnastics because I saw people — I saw Rey Mysterio doing all the flips and stuff and I wanted to learn how to flip so that’s how I actually got into gymnastics, so that kind of catapulted my gymnastics career and I didn’t really think of getting into wrestling until I got a little bit older and I didn’t really know how to really get into wrestling myself. I would always watch it on TV, but I didn’t know if there was a wrestling school around or if there was someone who could coach me and teach me and I finally — my mom got in contact with Greg Gagne and he’s an old wrestler and he agreed to kind of look at me and see if I could do a bump, if I could run the ropes and stuff and we actually went to Mr. Kennedy, Ken Anderson’s gym up in — or wrestling school up in Minnesota and he looked at me there and he agreed to take me on and train me and ever since then, I have been in wrestling.

When asked about the idea of joining Toxic Attraction (Mandy Rose, Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne), Stratton is not interested. She wants to remain a singles talent and show that she does not need a group to shine.

I think no [when asked if she would like to join Toxic Attraction]. I wanna be on my own team. I wanna be on my own and by myself and show people I don’t need to be put into a group in order to shine. I want to stand on my own and that’s that.

Stratton’s most recent TV match was at Great American Bash against Wendy Choo. To hear the upNXT crew’s review of that event, head over to this link.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit El Brunch de WWE with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions. 

About Andrew Thompson 9727 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.