For the second successive week, a superstar suffered a wardrobe malfunction on SmackDown. This time it was the turn of Tiffany Stratton, who had to suffer an embarrassing moment live on SmackDown. Notably, this was also the second time, Stratton had a wardrobe malfunction in the last few months since she moved to the main roster.
Stratton took on Bianca Belair in the quarterfinals of the Queen of the Ring tournament. The match ended with Belair advancing to the semi-finals with a win. She will now take on Nia Jax in the next round. However, the result of the match became a secondary concern for Stratton. There was one particular moment during the match that became the talking point.
During a spot in the match, Belair went for a back suplex. Her arms were locked around Stratton’s waist, but they also held on to the lower half of her garment. As Belair hoisted her up for the suplex, Stratton’s garment got displaced and she ended up giving Stratton a front wedgie.
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Stratton, being smart, managed to cover her intimate area with her hand to avoid getting caught by the camera. However, the moment did get captured on the camera and was shared across social media.
This adds to the recent misery for Stratton, who earlier made headlines because of her controversial social media post centered around Belair’s tag team partner Jade Cargill.
The amount of bookmarks is crazy 😂😂😂 https://t.co/fhAWbmigQv
— Wrestlelamia.com (@wrestlelamia) May 18, 2024
Wardrobe malfunctions have been plaguing the blue brand for quite some time now. Naomi also suffered a malfunction last week that caused the WWE to black out the screen during her match with Nia Jax in the first round of the Queen of the Ring tournament.
In one of the key moments of the game, the 36-year-old delivered a hurricanrana from the top turnbuckle on Jax but had to grab and adjust her top as she went for a pinfall. The match featured frequent black screen cuts as Naomi had to adjust the gear throughout the match. Meanwhile, for Stratton this was the second wardrobe malfunction since joining the main roster.
In February, Stratton took on Zelina Vega in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match on SmackDown. As the match progressed Vega hit a moonsault outside the ring, as Stratton got up she realized she had an issue with her top. The cameras were forced to cut to a black screen and remained away from her until she was able to fix her top. The Minnesota-native also suffered from another unfortunate incident during an NXT event before as well.
Considering how often Stratton has had to deal with such situations, could a change in her gear help? Incidentally, before the recent incident former WCW writer Vince Russo had an interesting take on Stratton’s in-ring gear.
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Russo believes Stratton should change her ring gear
Vince Russo was quite clear about what Stratton needs to do to get more heat while talking on the Wrestling Outlaws podcast from Sportskeeda. He specifically raised a concern around her ring gear, saying that she will need to change it. Russo said, “She wears less clothes out there than anybody on the roster,” Russo said. “Way less. Way less to the fact that you’re watching her matches because something’s gonna pop out.”
Russo added, “Bro, guys ain’t gonna boo that! Right there, if she really wanted to get heat, the first thing she’s gonna do is cover that s**t up!” The former WCW booker wanted Stratton to draw heat by covering herself which he believes will help her heel character.
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Meanwhile, after Stratton’s loss, the WWE uploaded a video to its Instagram account. In that, Stratton reacted to her elimination from the tournament by frustratingly saying, “I can’t believe I’m not going to be Queen anymore; I’m so. Aghhh!”. Despite her elimination in this tournament, WWE has big plans for her. Since she ascended to the main roster, she has become one of the lead antagonists of the SmackDown women’s division.
As for Belair, she has set her sights on being the Queen of the Ring. But for that, she will have to go through Nia Jax next week on SmackDown.