Tiffany Stratton Details Her Training, Road To WWE

In the present day, Tiffany Stratton is one of WWE's top stars, with reigns as NXT Women's and WWE Women's Champion attached to her name. Rewind just a few years, though, and one will discover that Stratton and pro wrestling barely knew each other.

On a recent edition of "The Nikki & Brie Show," Stratton chronicled her unique journey into the wrestling world, which came on the heels of her success in bodybuilding and gymnastics. "The Queen" Charlotte Flair has long been attributed as a driving force behind Stratton's in-ring pursuit. Beyond that, Stratton credits her mother with advancing her early training opportunities.

"I think it was like 2021 where I saw [wrestling] really starting to take off. That's when I discovered wrestling and I [thought] like, oh my God, this is totally up my alley," Stratton said. "I feel like my entire life I've been preparing for this job. This has to be my new thing. Immediately, I submitted my stuff online and I did it so many times. Then I found a pro wrestling school near me [in Minnesota]. I think it was just called Pro Wrestling Academy. Mr. Kennedy was the owner of that, so that was really cool. So I pulled up there with my mother. It was on a very sketchy side of town. My mom came with me. I was the only girl there and I rolled around for a little bit, took some bumps."

While Stratton continued her initial conditioning at Mr. Kennedy's Academy: School of Professional Wrestling, her mother, a nurse practitioner, went out for a home visit nearby. It was there that her mother then noticed wrestling posters on the patient's wall, which led to a conversation about his connection to Greg Gagne, son of WWE Hall of Famer Verne Gagne.

Once she obtained Greg Gagne's contact information, Stratton's mother wasted little time to reach out to him with the aim of potentially setting him up as Stratton's next trainer. Gagne ultimately agreed, and upon his arrival to Mr. Kennedy's gym, found himself thoroughly impressed by Stratton's abilities.

"He watches me take my first flip bump, and he was like, 'You've never done that before?' And I was like, 'No.' But I do it all the time on the trampoline," Stratton said. "That's something you do all the time in gymnastics, the one-footed flip bump. He could not believe that it was just so easy for me to do it on the first try and off one foot and then run the ropes. It was all just kind of second nature for me. And so immediately he was like, 'Okay, then I'm gonna train you. I'm going to get you ready for your tryout. You're going to be the most prepared there and it's going to be amazing.' So he reaches out to Stephanie McMahon. She pulls my information from the whole vault of all the tryouts, the resumes."

According to Gagne, Stratton's training with him started out rocky, including an instance of the industry veteran asking her to leave a session. Fortunately, she wised up to the realities of wrestling, and through her new and improved efforts, later earned an invite to a WWE tryout in March 2020.

At the same time as Stratton's tryout, the world began shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, WWE put the aspiring superstars on flights back home, with their potential futures in the company now in flux.

"The tryout comes. I'm so ready. I'm so nervous. The tryout comes and COVID-19 happened. They had to fly us all back home in the same day because they literally had to host Raw and SmackDown there that night, so we couldn't try out," Stratton said. "There were so many people that are now signed with WWE that were at this tryout. Trick Williams was there. Kiana James was there. I think Jade Cargill was there too. There are so many people that were there that are now signed."

With her wrestling dreams put on hold at that point, Stratton filled her time by honing another physical activity, bodybuilding, in her father's basement. In this realm, Stratton notably set a record in her weightlifting class. Still, her mind wouldn't leave pro wrestling, as evidenced by the repeated emails she'd send WWE across the next 18 months.

"I emailed them at least every other month. 'Hey, are you guys having a tryout? I heard you guys had a tryout. You guys had an all-boys tryout. You guys having an all-girls tryout soon?' Then they finally invited me back," she said.

Surrounded by about 13 other women, Stratton recalled putting her best efforts to impressing the WWE executives and coaches at her official tryout in the summer of 2021. According to Stratton, she was so serious about the opportunity that was willing to "die" before possibly not getting hired by the company.

Stratton's determination ultimately paid off as she received an offer to join the company shortly after the tryout's conclusion. Naturally, she accepted it, then relocated to Florida to begin her stint in WWE's developmental system.

"I definitely left that tryout knowing I was gonna get signed because I definitely stood out," she said. "I knew exactly what I was doing, I knew how to take a bump. It was just running the ropes, rolling, promos, just energy and showing that you're charismatic. So I had it all on lock, I knew it. Then I think it was three or four days later, it was Canyon [Ceman], I think I was his last hire, he Zoomed me and he said I was signed. Then in two months, I have to report to the PC and start my WWE career. I did that. I competed at my bodybuilding show first. It was just such a good time for me because I was in such good shape. I had this bodybuilding show, I just won it, and then a couple weeks later, I was off to pursue my WWE dreams."

Weeks into her WWE career, Stratton made her televised in-ring debut in a "205 Live" match against Amari Miller. "NXT" executive Shawn Michaels informed Stratton of the bout a mere 24 hours beforehand, causing her to quickly throw together a look consisting of a pink fuzzy top from Amazon and shoes from Shein.

Despite the last-minute nature of her performance, Stratton managed to wow WWE officials once again, so much so that they promoted her to the "NXT" roster the following month. There, she rapidly rose into the spotlight, and in May 2023, captured the brand's top prize, the NXT Women's Championship.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Nikki & Brie Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.