Ex-WWE Star Reveals Surprising First Impression Of Tiffany Stratton

Tiffany Stratton made an instant impact.

She might have only wrestled her first match in 2021, but Tiffany Stratton is already one of the biggest stars in WWE.

The 26-year-old has enjoyed a rapid rise since signing with the company and has already won the NXT Women’s Championship and Women’s Money In The Bank contract. To top things off, she’s also the reigning Women’s Champion, with a WrestleMania win over Charlotte Flair on her record.

Stratton’s stunning start to her WWE career might have surprised fans, but one former star-turned-coach already knew she was a megastar in the making.

Tiffany Stratton Made Quick Adaptation To Pro Wrestling

In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Ken Anderson, better known to WWE fans as Mr. Kennedy, looked back on his eventful career and the second chapter of his wrestling story.

Since 2016, Anderson has been running The Academy, after founding the wrestling school with fellow ex-WWE star Shawn Daivari. During this period, the likes of Gable Steveson, Dante and Darius Martin, and many more have all spent time at the facility, but perhaps no one impressed as quickly as Tiffany Stratton.

Greg Gagne initially approached Anderson about training the former gymnast, and he was immediately impressed when she got in the ring.

“So she was friends with Greg Gagne. Greg is a family friend, and Greg reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this girl, she’s a power lifter and she does gymnastics and stuff. She’s a super athlete, really good look, and I want to train her. Can we come?’

So she started coming and, right away, day one, she’s one of those people. I was saying earlier, we take our time to get to the flip bumps and stuff like that. But Alex Findley and Tiffany Stratton, day one, they’re doing perfect flip bumps, landing perfectly.

Gable Steveson, show him how to get up, bump, and then get up a certain way. He did it. I said, get up this way, and he started getting up the wrong way. I said uh uh, then he reversed himself, back down, and got up perfectly the right way.

But yeah, Tiffany, day one, there’s some stuff people just have instincts for. I think she’s one of those people. However, the funny thing was, I don’t mean this in a negative way, she didn’t have any charisma as far as she just did the work. She didn’t have the character stuff down. I have her first promo. I’ll have to ask her someday for her permission to put it out there, right? Because it’s not good.”

When asked what Gable Steveson was missing, the veteran suggested that he simply didn’t love wrestling. He added that in order to be truly successful in the industry, wrestlers have to love what they do, and Steveson lacked that connection.

Gable Steveson was released by WWE in May 2024, following claims his performances weren’t good enough to justify his sizable salary. The Olympic gold medalist then attempted to launch a career in the NFL before eventually returning to amateur wrestling.

Following another run of success and a high-profile defeat, Steveson left wrestling to try his hand at MMA under the guidance of UFC legend Jon Jones.

All quotes come courtesy of chrisvanvliet.com