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Greg Gagne looks back on his early training sessions with Tiffany Stratton.
Prior to joining WWE in 2021, Tiffany Stratton sat under the learning tree of AWA legend Greg Gagne. While their training got off to a rocky start, with Gagne even telling Stratton to leave on a few occasions, the future WWE NXT Women’s Champion eventually found her focus. During a recent episode of the Gagne & Magnum podcast, Gagne detailed his experience in training Stratton before she signed to WWE.
“A friend of mine had called me up and said hey, ‘These parents of this Tiffany really want her to be a professional wrestler.’ I said ‘Well what’s her background?’ She was a weightlifting Champion. She went into weightlifting for one year, set a record in her weight class, then she went into bodybuilding for a year. She won that and then she said, ‘I’m going to conquer professional wrestling.’ So I said ‘Well, I’ll give her a shot,'” Gagne recalled.
“I had some run-ins with her. She’s got an attitude. She thinks a lot of herself. She came in one day. I had two other guys there that I was training at the time – JDX and Rampage Savage. And they were in there, and of course, they’re busting their asses. [Tiffany] comes in and I said, ‘Come on, let’s get in here. Let’s get going.’ [She responded] ‘’Aw, you know, I’m so tired today,’ and she laid down next to the ring. And I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what. Just get your stuff on and get out of here, and don’t come back.'”
Stratton Comes Around
“[She said] ‘What?!’ I said, ‘You heard me, don’t come back. I’m doing this, your parents asked me to do it. I’m doing it for nothing, I’m spending all my time in here, and you come in here and tell me you’re tired? How about these two guys? They’ve been on the road all night, they’re in here, they’re busting their asses, so pack up and go home.’ So she left for about 10 minutes then came back and apologized and that, so we continued that session.”
As Stratton continued her early training journey, Gagne says she continued to give “attitude” as well, which ultimately caused Ken Anderson to step in. Though the details of that conversation weren’t mentioned, Gagne noted that Stratton wised up after speaking privately with Anderson. Three years later, Stratton remains grateful for Gagne’s help in introducing her to the industry.
“She’s turned in and she’s come home and taken me out to lunch a couple of times. She’s very receptive now, and thankful for the time we put in. We put in a lot of time,” Gagne said.
Despite the aforementioned speedbumps, Gagne felt that Stratton caught on to the sport very quickly. He also declared that the Stratton could take bumps better than most of the guys surrounding her.
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