AEW Were Reportedly Set To Start A Toni Storm vs. Thekla Feud As Of Last Week’s Dynamite

Toni Storm was reportedly going into a program with Thekla prior to her AEW absence.

On the March 18 edition of Dynamite, Toni Storm had originally been set to battle Marina Shafir in a No Holds Barred rematch of their pay-per-view encounter a few days earlier. However, after ‘The Timeless One’ was seen taken out backstage on the March 18 Dynamite, it emerged via Fightful Select that AEW expected the star to be out of action through the rest of 2026. Now, more has emerged on how Storm’s absence has impacted the creative plans moving forward.

According to an update from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it’s believed AEW were planning to have Storm defeat Shafir before beginning a feud with Women’s World Champion Thekla.

“On the day of the show at last week’s AEW Dynamite, all plans until the afternoon were for Toni Storm to beat Marina Shafir to lead to the start of a Thekla vs. Toni Storm program for the title. When AEW found out Storm could not wrestle, they laid out the injury angle and will be doing a tease akin to Who Shot JR? with clues and such and multiple potential assailants.”

-Dave Meltzer

Thekla instead clashed with Storm’s tag team partner Mina Shirakawa on this week’s Dynamite with the AEW Women’s World Championship on the line. ‘The Toxic Spider’ retained her gold on the night, though Shirakawa remains determined to find out who attacked her teammate.

As yet, there’s been no official word on why Storm is set for a prolonged spell on the sidelines, but a recent report indicated her absence is not related to injury. You can read more about that here.

As for Thekla, it was revealed earlier this week that the current Women’s World Champion has come to terms on a new contract with All Elite Wrestling. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on AEW’s scrapped plans due to Toni Storm’s absence as soon as we hear more.