James Stewart spoke to NXT Superstar Tiffany Stratton about her journey from elite level gymnastics and body building to WWE’s NXT brand, how she looks up to Charlotte Flair, and her pursuit of the NXT Women’s Championship culminating at Battleground in Lowell on May 28th.
On Gigi Dolin:
“Um, I don’t know. I think she is for some reason, she always brings up her brother, and that has nothing to do with winning matches. And frankly, I just think she’s distracted. Jacy just threw some sort of temper tantrum on her. So, I just think Gigi is just going to be a walk in the park.”
On Roxanne Perez:
“We have some unfinished business. I do think she is one heck of an underdog. She definitely works hard. But I think that we have kind of gone her separate ways for a little bit. I have definitely been working very hard, and I have prevailed for the past couple of months. And I definitely think that Roxanne and I will have a great match. But I will be coming out on top for sure.”
On Cora Jade:
“I just think she’s just another jealous girl in the locker room. I don’t know. I really don’t think there is much to her other than her being a jealous person. “
Losing a recent NXT Women’s Championship match to Roxanne Perez and Indi Hartwell:
“I can’t tell you how upset I am over it that I’m not going to be getting my one on one rematch with Indi. I’ve already beat her. I’ve already pinned her twice. So, it just makes me even more angry that she pulled me out after I hit my finish on Roxanne and got the upper hand. So, one day I definitely do want to get my rematch with Indi Hartwell. “
What made her want to go to NXT to start a career path to becoming a WWE Superstar:
“I one day was watching TV with my family, and we were flipping through the channels and I came upon Wrestling. I believe it was Friday Night Smackdown, and it was actually Charlotte Flair that I saw on the TV screen. And my mother pointed her out and she just she told me you could totally do that. And I was kind of just like. Taken back a little bit because I saw Charlotte, someone who can do all of these cool moves. She was a gymnast like I was. She’s blond. She’s gorgeous. It just was something that I felt like I connected with right off the bat because I saw, like, a little bit of me in Charlotte. And I didn’t pursue wrestling right away after I saw that I was still a gymnast at the time. So after, like, I was doing gymnastics, I went to CrossFit and went to bodybuilding and I finally got contact with Greg Gagne, who kind of helped me get a tryout would be. He also trained me a little bit before I got signed. And yeah, the rest is history.”
Comparing levels of gymnastics with Charlotte Flair, who was a level nine Gymnast:
“I believe she did a different kind of gymnastics than me. She did. And I did trampoline gymnastics and and all of gymnastics. It goes up to level ten. And then after level ten, you either go to junior or senior elite and depending on for my gymnastics, what event I was the best at, Um, I became a senior on one of them. So which is the highest level you could reach. So I would say that I was a couple levels above her.”
Creating the Prettiest Moonsault ever:
“My background is trampoline gymnastics and I think using the ropes and bouncing up was kind of a good way because I’ve always been able to like I have really good hand-eye coordination and like my ring awareness is really well. So dancing on the ropes is super easy for me. And I’ve seen so many people just do the basics standing at the top to the moonsault. So I think incorporating the bounce in the bounce with the Moonsault was like kind of a good way to like bring my background, I guess into it and make it make the moonsault just a little bit different.”
Come see your favorite NXT Superstars including Bron Breaker, Carmelo Hayes, Tiffany Stratton, Wes Lee, Dragon Lee, Lyra Valkyria, and many more!
WWE NXT Battleground comes to Massachusetts for the first time ever on May 28th at 7:30 PM.
Tsongas Center
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James Stewart is the executive producer of the Felger & Mazz program on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Send any issues you have with his takes to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @IAmJamesStewart.
