Tiffany Stratton calls Las Vegas ‘the perfect place’ to host WWE WrestleMania
Tiffany Stratton says Las Vegas is “the perfect place” for WWE WrestleMania.
WrestleMania 42 will be the second straight year the event is held at Allegiant Stadium in the city. During a recent interview with Sidewalks Entertainment, Stratton referred to it as the “sports entertainment capital of the world.”
Stratton said:
“Last year was actually my first WrestleMania ever. I was super nervous. It was in Las Vegas, so I felt like it was the perfect state for my first ever WrestleMania. I feel like Las Vegas is iconic. It’s the sports entertainment (capital) of the world, so it was the perfect place to host WrestleMania.”
Stratton grew up in Prior Lake, Minnesota, and competed in gymnastics, saying her ultimate goal was to make the USA Olympic team, but injuries prevented her from doing so. However, she says gymnastics helped prepare her for the live aspect of pro wrestling.
“I feel like because of gymnastics, I work really well under pressure because in gymnastics you only have one chance to do your routine flawlessly. So that kind of carried over to wrestling, with it being live and stuff like that.”
Stratton trained at Ken Anderson’s school in Minnesota before signing with WWE in 2021. She spoke about how, following the end of her gymnastics career, it was her mother who suggested wrestling could be her future.
Stratton continued:
“I saw wrestling on Instagram and my mom and I too were scrolling through the channels and SmackDown was on and my mom had mentioned that’s totally something I can see you doing and I was like ‘Yeah whatever mom, it’s fine.’ And then eventually I was like you know what? I’m going to give it a go.”
She enrolled in classes at Anderson’s The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling, and then her mom got in touch with AWA legend Greg Gagne, which led to her receiving a WWE tryout over SummerSlam week in 2021.
“He agreed to train me and helped me get a tryout, and then I tried out and they signed me a week later and I went through the whole system,” she said of Gagne.
The full interview is below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.