Tiffany Stratton AKA The Buff Barbie, has defied conventional wisdom and climbed the ladder of success like no other in the WWE, it was just on December 28, 2021 that she first made her debut on an episode of NXT 2.0.
And today at just the age of 25, Tiffany is the youngest ever female to win the money in the bank briefcase.
Who would have thought that just within a span of 2 and a half years a young rookie would come and become one of the biggest names on the roster.
In her short career in the WWE, she seems to have done it all, from winning the NXT Women’s Championship in May of 2023 and successfully defending it until Becky Lynch “the man” ended her 108-days reign as the champion to winning the money in the bank briefcase, which will soon result in her winning the Women’s World Championship.
So it is safe to say that The Buff Barbie is set for success right now in the WWE, but What most of us want to know is who really is Tiffany Stratton?
So, here are 5 Surprising Secrets of Tiffany Stratton that you most probably did not know.
Table of Contents
Affair
WWE superstars are no strangers to dating and then marrying their co-superstars, whether it was Becky and Seth, CM Punk and AJ Lee, Charlotte Flair and Andrade, Rhea Ripley and Buddy Murphy and the list goes on.
Same is the case with the Blockbuster Blonde, Tiffany Stratton, who started dating her fellow WWE star Ludwig Kaiser back in May of 2022, when they were both in NXT.
Gunter in December of 2022 posted a picture on instagram, where he and Jinny were seen having a dinner together with Tiffany and Ludwig in Madison Square Garden.
It seemed that they were on a double dinner date and WWE fans began speculating that Tiffany and Ludwig were having an affair.
Tiffany later confirmed the news in an interview and revealed that they began dating thanks to a game of rock, paper, scissors while they were out celebrating her soon to come birthday.
She said, “We kind of always knew of each other, cause we both were at the Performance Center. One day, he was out and it was my birthday weekend, and I was out. And we actually played rock, paper, scissors, and the loser had to ask the other person on a date. So he lost, and he had to ask me on a date.”
She also revealed that recently it has been tough for them to see each other a lot as She is working on “Smackdown” Brand whereas Ludwig is on “Raw”.
Past
Tiffany was born on May 1, 1999 in Prior Lake, Minnesota and from a very young age, she became interested in athletics and started her training for gymnastics and bodybuilding.
By the time she entered St. Catherine University for her graduation, she was really good at gymnastics and participated in various competitions such as The Winter Classic in Michigan and Elite Challenge in Colorado in 2016 as well as in 2017.
Although you may already know about her Gymnastics background from the wwe commentary, what you must not be knowing is that she was not an artistic gymnast but a double mini trampoline athlete.
For those who do not know the difference between the two, an artistic gymnast requires a wider range of skills such as strength, flexibility, balance and coordination and events include the floor, vault, uneven bars, beam and so on whereas in double mini trampoline an athlete has to perform two consecutive passes on a small, two-level trampoline showing their power, agility and aerial skills.
The Blockbuster Blonde has also won a bronze medal in the 2016 USA Gymnastics Championship, following which she became a member of The United States National Team in 2016.
In 2018, after proving herself in gymnastics she started lifting weights and within a year would go onto become a weightlifting champion, setting up a record in her weight class.
And in the following years, Tiffany would go on to participate in various bodybuilding competitions.
Inspiration
After Tiffany graduated from the University in 2019, She was figuring about what to do next and around that time The Queen Charlotte Flair was dominating the WWE’s Female Division, winning Smackdown Women’s Championship for a recordbreaking fifth time by defeating Bayley at Hell in a Cell.
Looking at the aura of the queen Tiffany was inspired to become a WWE superstar as Charlotte had a similar look and body structure to that of The Buff Barbie.
She Later in reference to Charlotte Said, “She is kind of like the person that I saw and said, ‘I want to do this, I saw the blonde hair, I saw that she was jacked, I saw that she could do these cool flips. I just thought she was so cool. She made me realize that I could do it. I was so similar to her, I thought, why not?”
And Today she has a Dream to have a match with The Queen at Wrestlemania.
Also Read: 5 Charlotte Flair’s Surprising Secrets That WWE Doesn’t Want You To Know!
How She Got Into WWE?
After Tiffany told her parents about her intention of joining WWE, her parents knew getting into wwe would not be easy despite her athletic background.
So, they with a reference of a friend contacted AWA legend Greg Gagne (gahn-yay), who after knowing about Tiffany’s background in gymnastics and bodybuilding was more than happy to give her a shot.
After working with Tiffany Greg soon realised that she definitely has a potential to become a top star in the WWE, but there was only one thing according to Greg that was holding her back, “Her Attitude”.
Greg in an interview said that he had to actually send her home 3 times as her attitude was just too much to handle, he told her, “If you’re not going to listen to me, head home.”
Eventually, Ken Andreson AKA Mr. Kennedy spoke to her and told her that she’s got a potential but she will have to be patient for it to materialise, after which she focussed and in 2021 got herself a Tryout with the WWE and the rest as they say is history.
Bonus: Why Tiffany Stratton?
So did I tell you that Buff Barbie’s real name is Jessica Woynilko? But how did Jessica land on Tiffany Stratton as her Ring name?
So there is an interesting story behind it, When She was asked by the WWE about what ring name She would prefer? She stumbled upon Tiffany Stratton as Tiffany was her mothers name and Stratton she picked from Leo’s Wolf of Wall Street, in which the name of the brokerage firm was Stratton Oakmont.
At last Jessica had to choose among two names Tiffany Stratton or Veronica Swanson and she went with the former because it just sounded too good to her.
Racist?
In May of 2024, amid WWE’s Queen of the Ring tournament, Tiffany found herself in hot waters over a now-deleted instagram story that showed her hitting Jade Cargill with a forearm strike during a match in the tournament.
In this post someone added audio within the video with a women’s voice, yelling “Black Bitch”.
After the Blockbuster Blonde had reposted this video on her instagram with crying and laughing emojis, fans wasted no time in expressing their disappointment and anger.
Even though Tiffany immediately deleted the story, it went viral on all social media platforms and many even labelled her racist and raised concerns about her judgement and professionalism.
In the next episode she was eliminated from the tournament following a defeat from Bianca Belair, which resulted in many fans specualting that wwe may take some harsh steps against her.
But a report from PWInsider later clarified that this is not the case and Tiffany is not facing any backstage heat and her position as a potential top star in the women’s division remains unaffected.
And when in a recent Money in the bank press conference, Tiffany was asked about the controversy she said, “Yup, it was an honest mistake…it was an honest mistake. I didn’t hear the audio. I had it up for maybe 20 seconds and I deleted it instantly as soon as I heard the audio. It was an honest mistake.”
So all in all it seems that Tiffany was not really a racist but she just made a stupid mistake.
Also Read: 5 Rhea Ripley’s Surprising Secrets that You Didn’t Knew!?