Add as a preferred source on Google Tiffany Stratton believes her many years in gymnastics played a big role in how quickly she adapted to professional wrestling.
In a recent interview with KARE 11, conducted as part of the promotional push for WWE SummerSlam in Minnesota, the current Women’s United States Champion explained that she came into her training already equipped with body control, coordination, and an ease with bumps and acrobatic movements.
“I would say that it was a lot easier for me than other people, just because gymnastics gives you such a good foundation. For pro-wrestling you have to be able to move, to flip, to have good body awareness, to roll.
I just feel like gymnastics has always given me that leg up. If you’ve noticed, we have so many former gymnasts, now pro-wrestlers.
We have people like Sol Ruca, Kelani Jordan, so I just feel like gymnastics has really just set me up for success.
I’ve always said this, I will put my child in gymnastics no matter what I want them to become in life because I just feel like it gives you such good coordination. It just sets you up for so many different things.”
Her athletic career started long before WWE. Born in Minnesota, Stratton specialized in trampoline and tumbling, made the U.S. national team in 2016, and won two bronze medals at a national championship. A stress fracture in her foot ended her gymnastics career in 2017.
After that, her mother reached out to Greg Gagne, who began training her for professional wrestling. That background directly shaped the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, her finishing move.
The names Stratton mentioned followed similar paths. Sol Ruca competed in acrobatics and tumbling at the University of Oregon, while Kelani Jordan came into WWE with a gymnastics background and later became the first-ever NXT Women’s North American Champion.
Stratton is currently in her first reign as WWE Women’s United States Champion, a title she won in April by defeating Giulia.