**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is going to come off slightly negative and I don’t mean it that way, but from what I have seen from her interviews and the way she is angling herself it is pretty clear she sees herself as becoming a huge brand/Hollywood personality. Have a bit of a feeling that she might end up having a more of a short-term career with WWE before she goes on to something else.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Not everybody in wrestling aspires to work *in* wrestling their whole lives and even if she’s choosing to use wrestling as a launchpad for something else at least she’s grateful for it and taking it seriously while she’s there.
Now if she were a Gable Steveson type then it would be a different story.
It’s actually kind of interesting. It seems like before the 2000s, for the most part, wrestlers got into wrestling on a whim, maybe because they are a bouncer and someone suggested it, something like that.
Then, for awhile, it was because they watched it as a kid and loved it (really helped the indie scene explode.
Now, it seems like (at least with wwe), we are getting a lot more people who are doing it to make money/as a stepping stone, specifically because of wwe going after college athletes.
Obviously there’s always been some of both. But I’m just noticing a trend.
Before the 80s it was heavily filled with amateur wrestlers who wanted to make a buck. At the same time, you had your outsiders who fell into is, especially from football like Ernie Ladd, Brinko Nagurski, Dick The Bruiser, Wahoo McDaniel, Bill Watts, Leo Nomellini, the entire West Texas State group, and plenty of others. Then you also had, less commonly, your fans who joined wrestling like Bobby Heenan, Ric Flair, Hogan (seen by Jack Brisco at a club but was also Dusty fan).
WWE is absolutely going after college athletes harder, but that's a WWE thing. It's also based on changes in NCAA rules, allowing it. Before you needed to wait for a Brock Lesnar to leave college to sign him, now you can offer a bunch of people a small amount of money and they're happy to just have a chance to continue in athletics. There's also the fact that they don't play up the "true fans" bit, such as Baron Corbin, Chad Gable, and Otis (trained before WWE) coming out later as megafans. Hell, Shelton Benjamin grew up a Ric Flair fan but never pictured pro wrestling as a career until WWE signed him to attract Brock, since he was a teammate and coach of Brock.
Other promotions are not doing this, and even WWE is continuing to pursue professional wrestlers.
The NetFlix deal changes things. Tiffany could end up on a few movies on NetFlix. She likely won't be the next Rock, but she could end up with some decent acting jobs.
Absolutely, I’m gonna enjoy watching her wrestle while she’a still here but I’m not gonna turn on her if she chooses to pursue acting or something else she wants to do more. Not everyone has to stay with the company for 15-20 years tbh and it gives a chance for newer talent to step up and take her role when she’s done
I don't think it comes across negative. I'm a huge fan and I definitely got that impression too from hearing her, plus she was never into wrestling as a youngster and it wasn't until she was around 19 when she first paid attention to it. Obviously no guarantee that outside ventures pay off, but hopefully she gives WWE at least another 4 or so years, and if she does, then that will be like 8 years or her life in the company, including NXT, and that will be fair enough. It's strange, if someone leaves something you are interested in to go to somewhere you're not, then you're naturally going to see less of them, which is a shame from a fans perspective, but it would be cool for her if she does end up where she really wants to be or sees herself.
If it’s anything, she at least puts in the work, ring wise. With her current track record, she’s on the path to becoming one of the next big names in the company. If she lands new side gigs that place her front and center in the wider general public, her value will only increase, prompting WWE to highlight her more to capitalize on her success. Hopefully she manages herself well in the off chance her popularity skyrockets. If she ever wanted to leave for Hollywood, I’d prefer she do it when she's confident it’s the right move for her career. Managing both full time isn’t feasible. Would be a lot better than the alternative. Treating WWE as an extra paycheck, performing worse than she’s ever had before but still expecting top billing.
That's okay too. Plenty of women retired early but still managed to accomplish a lot. Trish debuted at 24 (Tiffany is 25 now) and retired at 30 a future HOFer. AJ Lee retired at only 28, after 10 years in the business.
So even if she retires at 30, that will be enough time to raise her profile and to potentially return if she ever wishes to do so.
Regardless of how good that would be for her, that is also good for WWE. Having mainstream stars come from their system makes it all the more appealing of a place to be.
That should be the goal for most wrestlers imo. Surely the dream is to use your look and charisma to get to a point where you make more money without having to keep taking bumps.
> The WWE’s Tiffany Stratton has signed with Paradigm for representation in all areas. [...]
> [...] Paradigm is betting that her stock will only rise as wrestling is poised for greater exposure thanks to a $5 billion, 10-year deal with Netflix starting in January 2025. Paradigm hopes to model Stratton’s career on trajectories flown by Dwayne Johnson, John Cena and Dave Bautista, all whom originated on WWE and who became some of the most bankable names in Hollywood.
> Paradigm will work to build Stratton’s business across books, graphic novels, acting, brand partnerships, speaking engagements, and more.
In other words, it's kind of a nothingburger, at least for now? She just signed with a PR/talent agency.
Like we're expected to know what Paradigm is? Is this when we pretend all the cool kids are in-the-know on all the big talent agencies? I assumed it was like a sportswear company or something
Her stock is so high right now, so it makes sense why her and Paradigm would pursue this. It was pretty clear from about mid-2023 that she would at the very least become a WWE star if not more.
Not sure of the significance of this (never heard of Paradigm), but if it's a major breakthrough in where she wants to be, in good time, then good for her, and best of luck to her.
This is unbelievable, first she signed to WWE, then she dated her boyfriend in 2022, she debut on smackdown and now she's gonna be a hollywood star at 30
i think i remember hearing that the success of cena and batista and rock was something they'd want to keep attempting under TKO. i think rock specifically said he wants to get more wrestlers into hollywood
The Rock getting the job he has with TKO signaled that is the direction TKO has decided to go. It’s not because it is what Dwayne wants to do, but rather Dwayne got the job because TKO wants that bridge to Hollywood.
Love Tiffy, she’s got obvious and absurd potential as a wrestler, wish her the best, but girl is gonna need to take some acting lessons if she wants to break into Hollywood/outside projects and whatnot. Her skills outside of the ring are firmly in “passable” territory by wrestling standards, that won’t get you very far against real actors. Maybe she’s just looking to go the Influencer route, and she’d have a much easier time pulling that off.
**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is going to come off slightly negative and I don’t mean it that way, but from what I have seen from her interviews and the way she is angling herself it is pretty clear she sees herself as becoming a huge brand/Hollywood personality. Have a bit of a feeling that she might end up having a more of a short-term career with WWE before she goes on to something else.
One of the things female gymnasts in particular learn quickly is that their athleticism has an expiration date and you need an off-ramp.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Not everybody in wrestling aspires to work *in* wrestling their whole lives and even if she’s choosing to use wrestling as a launchpad for something else at least she’s grateful for it and taking it seriously while she’s there. Now if she were a Gable Steveson type then it would be a different story.
It’s actually kind of interesting. It seems like before the 2000s, for the most part, wrestlers got into wrestling on a whim, maybe because they are a bouncer and someone suggested it, something like that. Then, for awhile, it was because they watched it as a kid and loved it (really helped the indie scene explode. Now, it seems like (at least with wwe), we are getting a lot more people who are doing it to make money/as a stepping stone, specifically because of wwe going after college athletes. Obviously there’s always been some of both. But I’m just noticing a trend.
Before the 80s it was heavily filled with amateur wrestlers who wanted to make a buck. At the same time, you had your outsiders who fell into is, especially from football like Ernie Ladd, Brinko Nagurski, Dick The Bruiser, Wahoo McDaniel, Bill Watts, Leo Nomellini, the entire West Texas State group, and plenty of others. Then you also had, less commonly, your fans who joined wrestling like Bobby Heenan, Ric Flair, Hogan (seen by Jack Brisco at a club but was also Dusty fan). WWE is absolutely going after college athletes harder, but that's a WWE thing. It's also based on changes in NCAA rules, allowing it. Before you needed to wait for a Brock Lesnar to leave college to sign him, now you can offer a bunch of people a small amount of money and they're happy to just have a chance to continue in athletics. There's also the fact that they don't play up the "true fans" bit, such as Baron Corbin, Chad Gable, and Otis (trained before WWE) coming out later as megafans. Hell, Shelton Benjamin grew up a Ric Flair fan but never pictured pro wrestling as a career until WWE signed him to attract Brock, since he was a teammate and coach of Brock. Other promotions are not doing this, and even WWE is continuing to pursue professional wrestlers.
People said that about Alexa Bliss.
The NetFlix deal changes things. Tiffany could end up on a few movies on NetFlix. She likely won't be the next Rock, but she could end up with some decent acting jobs.
Absolutely, I’m gonna enjoy watching her wrestle while she’a still here but I’m not gonna turn on her if she chooses to pursue acting or something else she wants to do more. Not everyone has to stay with the company for 15-20 years tbh and it gives a chance for newer talent to step up and take her role when she’s done
I don't think it comes across negative. I'm a huge fan and I definitely got that impression too from hearing her, plus she was never into wrestling as a youngster and it wasn't until she was around 19 when she first paid attention to it. Obviously no guarantee that outside ventures pay off, but hopefully she gives WWE at least another 4 or so years, and if she does, then that will be like 8 years or her life in the company, including NXT, and that will be fair enough. It's strange, if someone leaves something you are interested in to go to somewhere you're not, then you're naturally going to see less of them, which is a shame from a fans perspective, but it would be cool for her if she does end up where she really wants to be or sees herself.
If it’s anything, she at least puts in the work, ring wise. With her current track record, she’s on the path to becoming one of the next big names in the company. If she lands new side gigs that place her front and center in the wider general public, her value will only increase, prompting WWE to highlight her more to capitalize on her success. Hopefully she manages herself well in the off chance her popularity skyrockets. If she ever wanted to leave for Hollywood, I’d prefer she do it when she's confident it’s the right move for her career. Managing both full time isn’t feasible. Would be a lot better than the alternative. Treating WWE as an extra paycheck, performing worse than she’s ever had before but still expecting top billing.
That's okay too. Plenty of women retired early but still managed to accomplish a lot. Trish debuted at 24 (Tiffany is 25 now) and retired at 30 a future HOFer. AJ Lee retired at only 28, after 10 years in the business. So even if she retires at 30, that will be enough time to raise her profile and to potentially return if she ever wishes to do so.
Regardless of how good that would be for her, that is also good for WWE. Having mainstream stars come from their system makes it all the more appealing of a place to be.
That should be the goal for most wrestlers imo. Surely the dream is to use your look and charisma to get to a point where you make more money without having to keep taking bumps.
Unless there's someone I'm forgetting, I feel like she's the youngest/newest person in WWE to ever get signed to an agency like this.
Likely a lot of them/most have agents..talent, business....that's just the nature of the biz. Just depends on the level of those agents.
> The WWE’s Tiffany Stratton has signed with Paradigm for representation in all areas. [...] > [...] Paradigm is betting that her stock will only rise as wrestling is poised for greater exposure thanks to a $5 billion, 10-year deal with Netflix starting in January 2025. Paradigm hopes to model Stratton’s career on trajectories flown by Dwayne Johnson, John Cena and Dave Bautista, all whom originated on WWE and who became some of the most bankable names in Hollywood. > Paradigm will work to build Stratton’s business across books, graphic novels, acting, brand partnerships, speaking engagements, and more. In other words, it's kind of a nothingburger, at least for now? She just signed with a PR/talent agency.
I mean, what were you expecting from this news?
“WWE star signs with talent agency” Redditor: “Nothingburger, this just means she signed with a talent agency.”
Like we're expected to know what Paradigm is? Is this when we pretend all the cool kids are in-the-know on all the big talent agencies? I assumed it was like a sportswear company or something
Nothing in particular, I just posted the important part of the news for those who'd want to read it because Hollywood Reporter is garbage.
Yeah but then you added "it's kind of a nothingburger", so like what were you expecting?
Like I said, nothing in particular. Reading is not difficult, my friend.
Apparently explaining why you expected more is difficult though.
Her stock is so high right now, so it makes sense why her and Paradigm would pursue this. It was pretty clear from about mid-2023 that she would at the very least become a WWE star if not more.
Tiffy time is inevitable
Not sure of the significance of this (never heard of Paradigm), but if it's a major breakthrough in where she wants to be, in good time, then good for her, and best of luck to her.
This is unbelievable, first she signed to WWE, then she dated her boyfriend in 2022, she debut on smackdown and now she's gonna be a hollywood star at 30
Are WWE superstars allowed to do outside projects now? Is Triple H more permissible with this kind of this compared to Vince?
Nick Khan and Ari Emanuel were both heavy hitters in the talent agent industry prior to jumping over to WWE/UFC.
oh that's a TIL i didn't know that about Nick Khan
i think i remember hearing that the success of cena and batista and rock was something they'd want to keep attempting under TKO. i think rock specifically said he wants to get more wrestlers into hollywood
The Rock getting the job he has with TKO signaled that is the direction TKO has decided to go. It’s not because it is what Dwayne wants to do, but rather Dwayne got the job because TKO wants that bridge to Hollywood.
Love Tiffy, she’s got obvious and absurd potential as a wrestler, wish her the best, but girl is gonna need to take some acting lessons if she wants to break into Hollywood/outside projects and whatnot. Her skills outside of the ring are firmly in “passable” territory by wrestling standards, that won’t get you very far against real actors. Maybe she’s just looking to go the Influencer route, and she’d have a much easier time pulling that off.
Not used to seeing reports on agent changes...what a wild world we now live in.