Tiffany Stratton recalls surprise NXT title win and scrapped gimmick

Tiffany Stratton said she was surprised and unprepared when she was handed the NXT Women’s Championship less than two years into her professional wrestling career, and she recalled how an early on-screen persona was scrapped by NXT leadership because it lacked a clear payoff. Speaking on the NoContest Wrestling podcast, Stratton described the rush and pressure of being elevated in NXT and traced how those experiences helped pave her path to becoming the current WWE Women’s Champion on SmackDown.

Stratton said she learned she would win the vacant NXT Women’s Championship on the day of the match at NXT Battleground, where she defeated Lyra Valkyria. “Nobody really had told me, like, ‘Oh, you’re winning the title.’ I just kind of found out one day when we were calling the match, I think it was day of,” she said. Because the decision was announced to her so late, she added, the significance did not sink in immediately. “After that match, I don’t even think it set in for another week. And then I felt almost like I wasn’t ready. And I was like, why are they doing this?”

Stratton said the sudden promotion forced rapid growth. “When you get pushed like that, you’re kind of forced to...