It's Tiffy Time! WWE Women's World Champion Tiffany Stratton interview

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0:35hey yo it's me it's me it's the t double the j i double g two jigger tj jefferson and i'm here okay o'shea jackson he's off in atlanta he's doing that whole movie star thing but don't worry he is going to join us shortly it's a big day for us here at no contest wrestling this is our first podcast on ESPN Disney plus platform. And, uh, it's like a dream come true. We're very excited to be doing this. And as far as we know, we are the very first wrestling podcast to be on the ESPN podcast platform. That's a major accomplishment, man. So I'm very proud of, uh, O'Shea, myself, uh, playboy, Don Bowie, everyone here, Jason, Mikey D RJ, everyone who does this for us, man, We thank all you guys.

1:21We thank D 'Lo and Hoskins. And I just throw everyone's name out there, Smich, for helping us get to this point. And this is just the start, man. We're looking forward to bringing you the best interviews with the best wrestlers in the world. So that being said, we decided that on our first ESPN show, we got to go big. And I think we did that. We're going to bring to you WWE Women's Champion, Tiffany Stratton. It's Tiffy time, people. Let's go.

1:49O'Shea:fans of the no contest wrestling podcast you know with it being our premiere episode on a worldwide leader tj we needed some gold around here you know we needed we needed to bring some some real title feel to our first day on espn and our next guest is a former nxt women's champion she is the current wwe women's champion former money in the bank winner her name might be tiffany but she's not handing out black and blue boxes she's handing out black and blue eyes ladies and gentlemen welcome tiffany stratton y 'all know what time it is to the no contest wrestling podcast hello that's actually a really cool little slogan i think i might steal that you got black and blue boxes we're hitting out black and blue eyes that's right that's awesome how are you first off i'm doing good how are you guys awesome we're great happy to have you for sure thanks absolutely so usually our first question on the no contest wrestling podcast when we have a new guest we like to ask them when do they get bit by the wrestling bug what was life before that led you to being the superstar that we know now oh so you want to let you want to know about my before life Yeah.

3:16Before wrestling? What was up with Lil Tiff? Okay. Growing up in Minnesota. Yeah, I'm from Minnesota, Prior Lake, a little small town. And I was a gymnast my entire life. It was literally my life. I eventually quit gymnastics. I kind of fell out of love for it. And then I went to CrossFit. I did bodybuilding. I worked at Mystic Lake Casino as a server and a bartender. and um one day i saw wrestling on my tv screen and i was with my family and my mom was like actually the person that was pushing me to do this and she saw charlotte flair and she and me it was like you could totally do something like that that's right up your alley you can do all the things that she's doing and i was like yeah okay whatever mom and then eventually i guess like a year and a half two years later I was like you know what like I kind of saw it on Instagram and it was starting to gain a lot of popularity and I saw it and I was like you know what I'm gonna give this a go and I found my nearest wrestling school and it was uh Mr.

4:29Kennedy's wrestling school um I signed up I did the classes and my mom actually knew Greg Gagne and reached out to him. And I think he thought my mom was crazy. My mom is crazy, but she's a good crazy. She reached out to him, said like, will you train my daughter? And he was like, I'll take a look. I'll come and like watch her bump and run the ropes. And he saw me take my first bump and he immediately was like, you are actually really good at this for only doing this a short amount of time. So he coached me. He helped me get a tryout with WWE. And actually, my first tryout got canceled because of COVID.

5:11And I was very consistent with them. And I emailed them nonstop. And I asked to be invited back. And finally, a year and a half later, I got invited back to a tryout. And they signed me a week later. And that's that. Wow. And Shay, you know what I love about this story is because, you know, I've quoted this more than once on the podcast, that real G's move in silence like Greg Gagne. And here you are, you actually trained with Greg Gagne. So that's pretty cool. What was it like? Did you hear stories about the late, great Vern Gagne from Greg? Oh, yeah. I heard a lot of stories. Me and Greg, we've bumped heads a couple of times.

5:53I'm a little bit of a diva, and he's also kind of a diva. um so we we we got along but you know there was moments where i was a little bit of you know a brat um but i'm very thankful that i met him he helped me so much he helped me learn the basics of wrestling he's the reason why i killed it at my tryout um i hope to see footage of that trial one day um i haven't seen it because i rocked that try i was willing to die before not getting a job. But yeah, Greg was awesome. He helped me so much.

6:28O'Shea:Now, during those early days, I know how physical gymnastics can be. I have a little girl, she's eight. She keeps talking to me about gymnastics. And I'm just nervous about any time she climbs anything. But what was your welcome to wrestling moment? A bump you took or just something that stung a little bit more than you were ready for at the time oh there there was so many of those at the at the performance center in my very early days of being at the performance center i would take bad bumps all the time and i would get like my bell rung um not the smartest thing um and i would continue to just keep bumping on it but i would say those first three four months were brutal because all you're doing is taking bumps and you're running the ropes and you're doing cardio drills um it can get pretty intense i have definitely thrown up from being too blown up and you know um but yeah i would say those first four months at the performance center was really tough and in in 2021 you were the only woman who was announced in your group of recruits to be training like that who else was in your class with you i mean i've seen pictures before but once you'll ever really know like who else was in that class because you had some um that was a heck of a class yeah um solo sokoa was one of them we got signed together um who else i had malik blade in my trial class um i had was oba in your class who was oba femi in your class or no was that a different class no that's a different class those are the two that i can remember um i forgot that one kid's name in nxt he does like the country boy gimmick he was also in my class not josh briggs but the other one um oh um yeah i'm drawing a blank now too but yeah i get you briggs jensen i think yes yes yeah um and that's oh i had this kid named bowie he used to um be in chase you okay yeah and that is all i can really remember okay and what was what was it like down there in the pc at that time it was lonely it was very lonely at first because i was the only girl in my signing group so for the longest time i didn't really have any girlfriends and then four weeks later um thankfully another group came it was the vegas group and nikita lions was in it um maxine dupree was in it jakara jackson and thankfully they came along and we all became friends and i wasn't alone anymore so it was it was very lonely at first but it got better now we you know we here at the no contest wrestling podcast we're big fans of naya jacks naya jacks graced us with her presence early on in our our days of a pod talk to us a little bit about the times with naya she spoke a little bit about uh you guys's times on the road she spoke very highly of you uh what was that like traveling with naya and on those things oh i i love naya so much i can't put her over enough um the first time that we really got to know each other was on the flight to australia she immediately sat down next to me i didn't even know who she was but she sat down next to me and we bonded for like 19 hours straight and we made tiktoks we talked about all the drama in our life and we immediately just like clicked and ever since that we've been attached at the hip.

10:20And she's just been so amazing to have around. She gives me amazing advice. I've learned so much from her. So, yeah, like I said, I can't put her over enough. She's amazing.

10:33O'Shea:Now, if I'm not mistaken, I heard you say that your second match ever was with Io Sky. You've worked with quite the list of veterans already from Io and Becky and in the elimination chamber, you had a bit of everybody in there. So who besides Nia, has there been anybody to really give you advice in the back or that you've kind of looked at for guidance even now that you're the champion? Yeah, I definitely would say it was Becky Lynch for me. I think that was – so Becky came down to NXT and we had a little feud. um we went we had a match on nxt tv and then we went to no mercy and both of those i also got to go on the the road loops with her and i got to be on the road and stuff so that time for me was a time where i was doubting myself a lot but in the very end of it all i had learned so much and i had gained so much confidence from just being in the in the ring with becky lynch um it was definitely after the no mercy match where i was like okay i i think i can actually be good at this one day or be like a ring general one day because i was in the ring with with becky and i you know i learned so much like i learned how to call matches on the fly and work on the fly and stuff like that um so i think becky has a lot to do with me and my confidence because a couple months later i got called up to the main roster and I really think no mercy was the match that put me on the map and I think main roster saw potential in me so Becky Lynch is definitely somebody that gave me a lot of confidence and I learned so much from and I would love to have another feud with her I gotta get my leg back absolutely way to phrase that the right way I love that she took the title off me man so teff even before you made it up to the main roster you know i'd like to talk about nxt a little bit you you won your first title the nxt women's championship at battleground you had been in the business uh less than two years about two years at this point right so what was that feeling like to to to go home and well first of all when you found out you were going to go over and win the championship and then getting that nxt women's championship and going home with it like tell us like the thoughts about that moment um so i was obviously very nervous nobody really had told me like oh you're winning the title i just kind of like found out one day when we were calling the match i think it was day of and that's when i i found out and i i feel like i didn't really have time to process it um but i had my match against lyra and that is probably top five favorite matches of mine I love working with Lyra she's amazing um and after that match I don't even think like it set in for another week um and then like I felt almost like I wasn't ready and I was like why are they doing this but as time went on I got more confident and I think everything happens for a reason and I was still growing as a wrestler as champion I was still only like two years into the business I don't even think that long but I was still growing and I think you know when you get pushed like that you're kind of forced to either sink or swim so I really had no other option but to swim and I learned a lot too in a very short amount of time and I'm super grateful for NXT they taught me everything I learned so much down there and now I'm champion on Smackdown and I feel like I am champion now because of NXT and how much I've learned down in NXT and from being champion and stuff like that so I owe NXT a lot for my career and also in NXT I guess that's the the place where you guys go and you work on character development and at first you had kind of like a daddy's girl type character and right before you won the title and then it kind of seemed like you got away from that and moved on tweaked your character ever so slightly what was the thought process behind going from the daddy's girl to the newer version yeah so the daddy's little rich girl gimmick kind of came from like sharpie evans from high school musical or like paris hilton um i think so we went with it for a little bit and then sean was like how we don't have a daddy for you we don't really have a payoff um so i think we kind of just need just to scrape it and that's what we ended up doing which is totally fine because you know i don't think i needed to be like daddy's little rich girl i think you know just being the blonde pink barbie doll was was enough so that's kind of what why that happened and you know my character has developed since then and stuff so yeah that's kind of why we scraped it now let me say this because, you know, your music hits.

15:52O'Shea:You always get the crowd behind you. Everybody's excited to see Tiffany. So you're in a unique position where the crowd rocks with you, but you're so good at being mean. Like some of the funniest times of me watching wrestling lately, there was a segment in the back where you're face-to-face with Bianca and Mia Yim, that's my dog, but you slapped her, but Jesus out of her and took off, died laughing. Just recently you had Alexa Bliss and Charlotte in the ring and you referred to them as vintage, died laughing. So what's more fun? Just being the face that everybody loves and roots for or just being the heel that you love to hate?

16:46I think being a heel is 10 times easier than being a baby face. You can mess up and you can fall on your butt. And, you know, like that's totally fine as a heel. However, as a baby face, if you do that, like the crowd could turn on you or you could get booed. And, you know, you're supposed to be like the face of the company and stuff like that. So being a heel for me is how I learned wrestling. I feel like I was a heel right off the bat. So that's why it comes so easy to me. And, you know, I'm still learning to like be a baby face and be likable and not have so much stink on what I say in my promos.

17:21So so it definitely comes more natural for me to be a heel. However, you know, bear with me. We're learning. Maybe one day I'll just go back to being a heel. But for now, we're a little baby face Tiffy. I kind of feel Shay that like Hill Tiffy is the way to go because the thing about Tiffany Stratton is you're not really relatable how can people relate to Tiffany Stratton no one looks like you no one can do the things you do no one's the champion like you so I can understand why you would I mean that all lends itself to me to being like the ultimate Hill so I do kind of like the fact that you are a baby face now because it gives you something different but I I feel like ultimately, man, I don't know.

18:06Maybe it's just me. She's a spicy baby face. Yeah, like the stank. She just said it. The stank, Tiffany. That's the one right there. I agree. However, like, I never changed anything. I just started getting cheered. So now they're kind of like, okay, you kind of have to, we got to play into that a little bit. We can't be full, like, heel tiffy anymore. Even though, like, that comes easy to me. And that is what got me cheered. but they're kind of just like, you know, be a little bit more likable now. You don't need to be so bitchy in your promos, which like, I understand completely. Hey champ, by the way, if that belt's comfortable, I know you're holding 20 pounds of gold and rubies on your shoulder.

18:47I mean, I don't want to make you hold it up the whole time. It's up to you. Cause I'm not here to tell you what to do. That's okay. It's resting real good right now. All right. Got anything for you? Yeah.

18:58O'Shea:Now, you are part of my favorite women's money in the bank match ever. All right. That, like, man, it was such a banger. But in that match, you and Naomi are in the ring. You do a cartwheel into an Alabama slam. And I heard you say that that is a move that you never want to take. What other moves out there do you dread taking? oh um uh that's a really good question there's not a lot of moves that i like taking um oof i think power bombs can be really crappy to take because sometimes people will yank you down sometimes people will just let you float down um power bombs um naya jocksas finisher jade recently started doing she calls it the eye of the storm the thunder bomb i think it's like a similar to thunder bomb and you like spin around and she power bombs you and like i have to hold my head up just because the whiplash and like the momentum coming down so that's pretty crappy to take um but yeah any sort of like power bomb i think is really bad to take i will not be taking an Alabama slam from anybody anytime soon.

20:30Shay, we had a few women give the answer of like Raquel's Tejana bomb was a move. I was about to say, I can't really remember seeing you, but I have heard that. Yeah, we've gotten that a few times. That's a move that the ladies just don't like taking. Or like a choke slam of some sort. Lash Legend choke slammed me one time and that hurt pretty bad. I imagine everything kind of hurts a little. bit though. Oh yeah. All right. Um, you know, I want to get back to something real quick. You said a few moments ago, your mom pushed you into doing this. And I haven't really heard that, that answer too much.

21:10Uh, let's talk about your mom, your parents and how like they've supported you through this journey. Yeah. My parents love what I do. Like if they could, they would come to every single show. My mom just, I don't know why she loves it so much, but she always just like, no, do it. I'll go with you. And she always went with me to the trainings and stuff because I didn't know anybody. And she was so supportive and she was there for me through everything. And she still is. She still loves coming to everything. She is a little bit of a fan of everyone. And she's always like, oh my God, hi, I'm Tiffy's mom.

21:46And actually, fun fact, my mom's name is Tiffy. So we call her the OG Tiffy or her name's Tiffany, but we call her OG Tiffy because she is the OG. So, yeah, my mom's a little bit of a fan. So every time we're at shows, she runs up to everybody and she says hi. And I have to tell her to calm down. Is that part of the reason you adopted the name Tiffany? Yeah. So they ask you to put down 10 first names and 10 last names. And I needed like one more name. And I just put down Tiffany. I was like, that's my mom's name. Why not? And then Stratton, I actually got from Wolf of Wall Street. The firm was called Stratton Oakmont, I believe.

22:28And then, so it was between Tiffany Stratton and Veronica Swanson. And I picked Tiffany Stratton just because like my mom's name was Tiffany. So it would have meant a little bit more than Veronica Swanson. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities.

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23:42O'Shea:All right. Now, your mom being a wrestling fan, talk to us about when you finally got the big one. You know, number one, how did you feel being able to lay your head on the pillow as champion of WWE? And what's that conversation with mom like? I mean, is that not the biggest I told you so? So I actually didn't tell my parents that I was cashing in. um i just said like make sure you watch smackdown tonight please because sometimes you know they get busy they don't watch so i'm like clear your schedule watch tonight's smackdown i've got a match um and my parents were like flabbergasted they didn't know that i was becoming champion and they thought it was the coolest thing ever like their daughter that's only been on you know smackdown for what i think it was around six months or no a year almost a year at the time you know like three years into the business uh winning a title they that they were so amazed I was just amazed with myself I couldn't believe it um I didn't know what was happening that day so that like all in all it was just such a good day for me because all it was was a cash and I just hit my moonsault so I didn't really have any crazy stressors or like had to worry about a 20 minute match.

25:00So it was such a good day for me. I, I had the best time with that whole cash in and how it all was laid out. So it was, yeah, just an amazing moment for me in my career. Now you, you were like, you were, you were hanging with Naya while she was a champion and she had the belt. Right. And I feel like that's where the whole face thing came because Naya was, she was kind of like being a little bit of a bully to you. And, and, And the fans, I think at that point, just started organically starting to like, yo, this ain't cool. They start rooting for you. Did you feel the momentum shift? And did you feel like, all right, now it's time to, you know, go away from being a hill and becoming a baby face?

25:42Did the fans really play a part in that? Or was that always the plan? No, I think the fans completely, you know, made that happen. I don't think they ever really planned on making me a baby face. It just organically happened. And I think that's the best way for it to happen. But it really happened in Australia at Elimination Chamber in 2023.

26:08The crowd completely knew who I was. They were training Tiffy time the whole time. It was my first PLE as a main roster talent. I really didn't think anybody knew who I was because I had just gotten called up like a month ago. And I just had my Rumble debut. So I didn't really expect much going to this PLE. And turns out like all of Australia knew who I was and was changed every time the whole time. And it carried over into the States, thankfully. And ever since then, the crowd's been on my side. And I'm like so thankful for that. I think, like I said, that was the best way for it to happen, being a heel and, you know, eventually getting the crowd to cheer you organically and not forcing anything.

26:51and then when I won the briefcase I think that made things even more likable I guess you could say um you know the anticipation of the cash in and and turning on Naya someone who was bullying me and kind of putting me down and telling me I wasn't ready to be champion so I think it was a lot of different factors going into everything and eventually when I did cash in it was just like the biggest, the ultimate payoff that you could get in that story. I finally defeated my bully and, you know, I was finally champion. So a lot of factors went into me getting cheered and becoming a baby face. And here we are still a champion, like 247 days later, something crazy like that.

27:37So yeah. And Shay, if I could jump in again real quick. Now, Tiff, you know, watching, Clash in Paris, you're hearing the chants that some of the wrestlers get. And I always kind of wonder this because this type of reaction, the only I feel like rock stars, rappers, wrestlers can get. When you're in that elimination chamber and those Australian fans are absolutely losing it for you because you were, does Australia have a prime minister? Because if so, whoever runs Australia, you would have won the election that night, as far as I'm concerned. what what does that feel like because i'm thinking of aj styles yesterday right at the clash and the the crowd's chanting they had that chant for him that they did last year and they did it again this year and he's standing there and he's feeding off of that so just for someone like me who probably never had that moment what was that like to be in that chamber and hear those people just losing for me yeah so for me at first i was like are they chanting for me because i didn't i couldn't hear the chant clearly I was just so focused on you know making sure that the match was going smoothly and I was in the the little chamber thing and I was like what the heck and I started giggling I think there's a video I just started laughing because like there I was like there's no way they're cheering for me right now and then I was like okay I gotta lock in right now because they're expecting me to be good because they're they're chanting my name now so I'm like oh my gosh okay I gotta make sure like I don't botch anything I don't mess anything up so I was like okay lock in as soon as my thing went off and I was in that ring I was balls to the walls trying to get everything perfect everything down and it gave me so much it almost gave me like an adrenaline rush and it gave me more confidence but I also like put a little bit more pressure on myself because I'm like okay now they're tanning me I have them like I hope I don't mess anything up and you know make them hate me now but for the most part I got a huge confidence boost from everything and that match was so amazing i mean every girl in that match killed it um and yeah it was my breakout moment for me i feel like all right now i have to bring this up because like

29:50O'Shea:i said it's my favorite women's money in the bank ever but my best friend in the whole world my man roman he's a tiffany stratton fan every feud you have i get this long list on why you should go over And I have to tell Roman, we don't control anything, man. But he breaks down why Tiffany should go over. But he also loves him some Chelsea Green. In that match, you send Chelsea Green all the way out of the ring, two tables. She couldn't have landed any more perfect. Talk to us about what goes through your mind with a spot like that. And then compare the madness of a Money in the Bank versus an Elimination Chamber.

30:36So going into that spot, I was so nervous. Chelsea was going to hurt herself. So I made sure to not push the ladder too hard, just enough. But I was nervous as crap for her. And as soon as I got that over with, she landed safely. I was like, okay, now it's time for me to have my moment. So that was just an amazing Money in the Bank match for me. But the difference between Money in the Bank and Elimination Chamber, I think it's the ladders, obviously. The ladders are so scary and you have to watch out. There's like seven ladders in the ring and you're making sure you're not tripping over them. So I think Elimination Chamber matches are so much more fun to watch.

31:20Just because you don't know who's coming out next. You've got the little blinker going on. There's a cage involved. I think the elimination chamber matches too are also easier to kind of put together and stuff like that. But yeah, I think, I think, I think money in the bank's a little bit more of like, like you said, like madness because of the ladders and stuff. A lot can happen with ladders.

31:46O'Shea:Now my tag team partner over here, TJ Jefferson, he is the biggest and by biggest, I mean the only Mets fan that I know personally. Listen, and hold on, bro. hold on bro we got company relax relax man still bro we're on espn now so you've you've you've thrown out the pitch twice at meds games but the second time you got jumped by naya i want to talk about how fun is it to do wrestling stuff in non-wrestling worlds oh that was so fun that day we were kind of like going with the flow and we're like yeah whatever you need and they're like can you guys do physicality i was like heck yeah i'll do physicality in the med stadium at city at city field um it was i got to also give one of the mascots a chair shot which was really fun um and then i threw naya into the mascot and i pinned her and yeah that was that it was a super super fun experience i tried to you know get my lick back with, you know, my first pitch moment.

32:59I tried to go for a second time, and Naya messed that up for me, but maybe they'll invite me back, and I'll be able to do it again. However, yeah, it was super fun. I had a blast, and doing wrestling in a baseball field was so fun. Now, Tiff, I don't want to bring up anything to make you mad because I don't want beat up or anything.

33:20O'Shea:There you go, man. You did get one pitch that was uninterrupted by Naya, and we would be doing a disservice. I'm sorry, but we just have to show this real quick. Oh, my gosh.

33:36And you gave out the it's tiffy time, yo, and then you threw it, and I don't know if the ball's landed yet. No disrespect. I'm not trying to start nothing. But what was that moment like? I was so nervous for some reason. And I was like, I hope people don't think like I'm not athletic. So my goal was to just get it to the the capture. But I never thought like I would overshoot it or like shoot it sideways. So that was my plan. And that did not work. I completely shot it like sideways and it went way over everybody's head. So hopefully I can, you know, get a third try eventually. and, you know, get my leg back.

34:23But yeah, that was what was going through my head. You know, last year, we, as a Mets fan, we had Grimace. He came out and threw out a first pitch, turns our entire season around. And now this year, I think when we win the World Series, we're going to have to put you on one of the floats because you have now done something to help boost us to a championship level. So thank you is what I'm saying. Wait, are the Mets doing good? Of course.

34:49Yes! Yes! I cursed them! Yes! Why is that funny, O'Shea Jackson? Yes.

34:55O'Shea:Because I heard you say win the World Series, which is crazy. You never know. That's just insane. We're in second place right now. We're in a roll. Soto's heating up. I told you it was Soto season. Listen, Tiff, yes, we're doing very well. We're going to make the playoffs, and we're going to win the World Series. And you heard that first. I'm happy to hear that. Did you tell the Dodgers that? Who? You tell the Dodgers that? I don't even know. I don't know what you're talking about. All right, cool, man. That's cool, man. I get it. You know, it's been interference and everything. Just like your mic wasn't working earlier.

35:27O'Shea:Yeah, yeah, you know, I get it. But so Tiffany, everybody, you know, for obvious reasons, they connect wrestling to its physicality and the physical challenges that go into it. But there's also a lot of mental challenges that happen with it. What has been the best thing about this new journey for you? And what has been the hardest thing? about this new journey that's a good question um i would say the hardest thing is i still feel like i'm so new to wrestling um and i still feel like i'm going out there and i'm learning and that might also be a good part of wrestling you can always be getting better which i like i like being challenged i like being competitive um and that's one thing i really enjoy about wrestling is you can always be getting better.