“In Hollywood, all the marriages are happy. It’s trying to live together afterwards that causes all the problems.” – Shelley Winters.
Chasing greatness is one thing, it’s another to maintain it.
Toni Storm is as great as it gets; a former World of Stardom Champion, a champion across the UK and a success in NXT, her transition to All Elite Wrestling saw her truly emerge from the pack. Not just another ex-WWE wrestler switching to the other side, she could be considered the female ace of the promotion and, at times, on top of the world. But, what happens when the success stops, even if just for a second?
Given that the now 29-year-old has remained at the top level of competition for the vast majority of her 15+ year career, she’s naturally had many peaks and troughs to battle. In 2023, adversity hit her like never before. As a member of The Outcasts, Storm found herself holding the AEW Women’s World Championship, as she so often has in her time with the company. However, losing the title when Hikaru Shida reversed Toni’s pin attempt into one of her own, the usually successful star couldn’t come to terms with her new reality. The gold had slipped from her grasp.
The weeks that followed saw a psychological shift for Storm in a way we’d never seen. The slight tremble in her voice was telling, her cadence had changed, and she even began to dress differently. Giving us the first glimpse of what was to come, she responded to questions around losing the title with: “Am I just not a star anymore? Am I just not talented like I was? Have I lost it?”
At first she had respite, competing at Wembley Stadium to try to regain her title, but to no avail. It was she who was pinned to end the match by her then teammate Saraya, prompting further internal conflict. Little by little, fans learned more and more about what was to come, and it became noticeable that the gradual overhaul of the fabric of what made ‘Toni Storm’ was working for her in the ring.
She won a number one contender’s match by roll-up, and, fortunate win or not, it reinforced her belief in what she was becoming. Prior to her one-on-one title match, the light shone through on the character change when the first ‘Portrait Of A Star’ vignettes graced our screen. Storm shot down suggestions of change, suggesting that it was the business itself that had changed. Challenges in the ring awaited her and failure arrived yet again when she couldn’t reclaim the championship from her fellow Outcast Saraya.
You see, while the mental game had clearly changed for Toni Storm, she was still a wrestler in a wrestling world. When you strip everything away, she was still one of the best in-ring talents in the world. Sometimes, though, even the greatest still lose, and she just couldn’t deal with the mere presence of failure.
In the midst of questioning whether she has enough to return to the top in an ever-changing landscape we heard the foundation that would carry us through this story and beyond. ‘I’m timeless’. The black-and-white videos continued, the dramatisations became commonplace on All Elite Wrestling TV, things progressed as Storm had envisioned. Then everything changed on November 8, 2023.
Announced by RJ City (who himself featured in many of the ‘Portrait Of A Star’ vignettes) Mariah May appeared on AEW Dynamite for the very first time. Not initially concerned with a direction, championships or anything that’d typically fall within the world of wrestling, May was giddy at the thought of meeting Toni Storm, citing the similarities between their career paths to that point. However, at first, the star wasn’t interested.
Storm’s sole focus was realised when she made history by becoming the first three-time AEW Women’s World Champion at Full Gear, using a metal plate to make her Hip Attack even more impactful. From her perspective, this was the insurance policy to completely remove the threat of failure on her personal quest to hold the gold. What she couldn’t yet see was how much she was influencing those who watched closely. Although Storm still celebrated her triumphant performance, basking in the spotlight alone, May began to follow her everywhere. They became inseparable.
As it was, Storm was happy to let ‘a fan’ carry her title, admire her greatness, and fill the role of understudy. Instead of a mutual partnership, the Women’s Champion carried on with business as usual, the only difference being that she was now propped up by reassurance whenever she asked for it. Where once she needed the title to be sure of her greatness, her void of self doubt was filled by a constant reminder of how great she used to be, and the legacy left by her success.
Mariah grew and grew in the ring, all while providing the attention and stage props her idol needed to stay atop the mountain. Seven singles wins in a row, May was making the transition from the Japanese stage to American TV as effortlessly as her mentor had done. At Revolution 2024, she adopted Storm’s old music, adorned Storm’s old gear, and played an utterly crucial role in Toni’s successful title defence against Deonna Purrazzo. Crucially, the champion was starting to take notice.
With Mariah dressed like her role model’s former self, it clicked. Storm accepted what had been staring her in the face for months on end. She realised in a reflection of how far she’d come that she needed to embrace all versions of herself, even the ones portrayed by others.
“I see myself in you, and I love me!”
When Mariah had racked up enough wins to move up in the rankings, she found herself with a number one contender’s match that could see her face off against her mentor with the gold on the line. At first, Toni appeared stunned at the prospect of Mariah possibly getting close to her for her own personal gain, but, in actuality, she was proud. The idea of befriending someone just to get near their gold? It was genius. An incredible plot and a great script to follow, – if only Storm herself had thought of it!
As it happened, Mariah didn’t earn the future AEW Women’s World Championship shot, but what she did receive was almost more powerful: the knowledge that Storm was absent-mindedly sleepwalking into the future. Focused on her own performance and fuelled by the desire to create an understudy, the champion who had the most to lose wholeheartedly believed that her protégé felt lucky to be in her presence and would only step into the spotlight when she gave her blessing. This allowed May to focus on other relationships – specifically a reunion with Mina Shirakawa.
At ROH Supercard of Honor, Mariah picked up a win against Momo Kohgo, and, with many of the STARDOM roster in town, she was greeted backstage by ‘The Venus’. Alongside Shirakawa, the Brit had learned her trade in Japan, becoming Goddess of STARDOM Champions in 2023. Their dynamic there certainly shared similarities with the one she was now forming with Storm. Mina, proud of her former teammate’s progress, planted a kiss on May, and the two shared a drink as they had so often done before. Her former flame was back just as her current love story was reaching its crescendo. How would she respond?
Caught in the middle ever so slightly, Mariah simply attempted to appease both of the women at her side. She replicated Mina’s tendency to celebrate with champagne when she brought some to Toni Storm after she successfully defended the title at Dynasty. She tried to be both the girl formerly of ‘Rose Gold’ STARDOM, and the girl forever at the side of Toni Storm.
Perhaps threatened by the idea of not being the main attraction to May, Storm got her a spot in the Women’s Owen Hart Tournament. In truth, from the moment Storm welcomed Mariah’s presence, she began to form an attachment. Six months before meeting the former Club Venus member, Toni was struggling. Now? She had someone to show her love, and fawn over her every move. She couldn’t let that slip away, even just a bit, but had she forgotten what lay at the end of the tournament she’d just signed her understudy up for?
The proximity of Shirakawa to May continued, and the Japanese star stood in the way of the Women’s World Champion at Forbidden Door with the gold up for grabs; everyone involved did their best to keep a brave face. Crucially, Shirakawa leant on her ‘Everybody Wants Mina’ phrase and put it to Storm: did the fans want Toni the same way they did her? Did Mariah?
As June came and went, Storm defeated Mina, and this chapter closed with the pair seemingly agreeing to be on the same page for the sake of common ground. But, with that behind them, it was time for the Owen Hart Cup to commence. Standing between Mariah May and Wembley Stadium were Saraya, Hikaru Shida and Willow Nightingale.
One by one, she secured each win. Eventually, the world title shot was achieved and the champion was happy for her every step of the way. The stage was set, the spotlight would shine on both of them on the biggest stage. They were on top of the world, weren’t they?
As the championship struck Storm’s face and the leather whipped against her skin, Mariah brought the Timeless one’s world tumbling down. Destiny awaited she was going to have her AEW World Title opportunity anyway and it could’ve been friendly, but that wasn’t enough for the challenger who would soon come to call herself ‘The Woman From Hell’. She made her statement and had drawn her battle lines, but nothing was far enough.
Storm, who once warned others to “watch for the shoe”, felt the full force of its heel pushing through her skull. Strike after strike after strike, the blood flowed as Mariah made the shoe persist against her mentor’s head. She couldn’t stop. May kissed her fallen former love forehead, both women bonded by the blood which disgraced both attacker and victim. After Storm found the spotlight, it was her lover who delivered the ultimate performance.
Having dressed as Toni’s older personas in the past, the first time Mariah emerged post-beatdown was as her true present self. Stil somewhat resembling the woman she felled, with her blonde locks and determination, Mariah told those in attendance that she could’ve done what she did so much earlier, had it not been for the fun she was having along the way.
She went week-to-week beaming with pride over the World Champion’s absence, even playing her theme song knowing there would be no response. Until there was. Poetically, dressed to look like ringside crew and pretend to be someone else, Storm emerged behind her betrayer to initiate a brawl. Once they’d separated, Storm screamed the immortal words: “Are you prepared to die?”
Under the Wembley arches, it all came to a head in a barnburner of a match. The wrestling attempted to resemble a usual contest, but kept turning corners that saw it become rough and gritty. Mariah slapped her own mother sat at ringside, simply doing whatever she could to prove her heartlessness. There was a Storm Zero onto the steel steps that drew blood, and each move that followed had enough force to ensure everyone remembered the disdain that now existed where love once did.
Face-to-face with one of the best in the world, the gravity of the situation almost set in, Mariah started to squeal as the champion wailed down punches to her bloodied forehead. Toni utilised her genuine expertise to gain the upper hand on her opponent, as she had done throughout her career, however, no matter the extent of her offence, there was one crucial difference between the pair of ex-lovers that night in London.
May grabbed the shoe still stained with the champion’s blood, only for Storm to intervene. Then, with control of the implement that had caved in her forehead weeks earlier, the ‘Timeless’ one had a choice to make. With the shoe raised to strike, she couldn’t. Throwing it aside, she couldn’t override the attachment for Mariah that still resided within her, giving the advantage away. Just a few moves later, we had a new AEW Women’s World Champion, leaving Storm with nothing but a standing ovation from the Wembley crowd.
Now champion, May kept her edge, but welcomed the rest of the locker room to step up. She’d taken out the great Toni Storm and therefore, in her own mind, was untouchable. Each backstage promo was performed with equal amounts of eloquence and intimidation as she did her best to strike fear into the roster.
Names she overcame included former champions Nyla Rose and Thunder Rosa, as well as Yuka Sakazaki, and her fellow Owen Hart Tournament finalist Willow Nightingale. Mariah even attempted to fool Mina Shirakawa into a false sense of security, but, to her credit, ‘The Venus’ realised what was going on and the pair went to war over the gold at Dynamite’s ‘Winter Is Coming’ special. It’s worth noting that, when asked to comment on defeating Shirakawa, May talked about how she didn’t want to do it and that she still loves her former tag partner. “It’s just what I do.”
At the end of the match with Mina, she was interrupted by music that once welcomed her to the ring during her days of cosplay. It was Toni Storm and everyone knew that, except seemingly the woman herself. In the Wembley build up, May said she’d like to burn her once idol’s star to the point at which people would wonder whatever happened to Toni Storm, and now the former champion had erased her own past from her living memory.
While Storm was gone, the cycle had started again. Toni returned to STARDOM, where both she and May had flourished in the past, she went to CMLL and she completed a tour not too dissimilar to that of an inexperienced wrestler attempting to make a name for themselves around the world. When she returned to AEW, she even returned to Rampage (the lesser of the company’s three brands at the time) to attempt to rise through the ranks all over again.
At World’s End, she was on the pre-show, and in the weeks following that she’d announced to the crowd that she’d finally become ‘All Elite’ by signing with AEW for the very first time. Confused as the rest of us, RJ City sat down with Storm on the exact same set as the previous ‘Portrait Of A Star’ vignettes, however Toni framed every answer as if she was a complete novice, entirely grateful for just the opportunity to compete in All Elite Wrestling. She even called Mariah May one of the best in the world.
Obviously still skilled, Storm returned to her fundamentals and began to pick up some wins. Notably, she defeated Taya Valkyrie with an Inside Cradle, earning what could be seen as fortunate victories as someone in the role of rookie, leaning on 15 years of experience to take down her opponents Still, there was surely no way for an ‘inexperienced wrestler’ to find her way to Mariah. That was – until the first women’s Casino Gauntlet was held on Dynamite.
Allowing anyone on the roster to step up and challenge for gold, the Casino Gauntlet is one of AEW’s most beloved ideas. Happening throughout 2024, the match serves as a fun way of establishing a new challenger without the need to link it to their previous performances. It was the perfect way to link the two former partners together, and, importantly, it ended with Toni winning via an Inside Cradle.
With a title shot in the bank, Storm eagerly awaited her ‘first’ meeting with Mariah May, which would happen at Daily’s Place. However, the champion wasn’t having any of the charade. She told the so-called rookie that when she looks at her she sees nothing, when she thinks of her she feels nothing, but it was said with far less conviction than her previous backstage promos. May endlessly repeated the idea that she doesn’t, and never did, care about her once supposed idol, but none of it really set in. Toni even hugged Mariah and there appeared to be no semblance of the woman she used to be – until it got physical.
Delivering a slap to Storm, the Brit unleashed a ferocious beatdown on the Aussie-native weeks out from Grand Slam Australia. She struck Toni with the belt, mirroring her actions from the previous summer, and continued that trend by using the strap to whip her rival and mockingly kissing her forehead. It was that, the reliving of the trauma that set us on this path, that shook it out of her.
“What makes you think I’ve forgotten? What makes you think our dance is done?”
Removing the clothes that symbolised her original AEW persona, chills formed among the fans in attendance and on social media when Storm described her act as her former self as “the performance of a lifetime.” She embodied ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm once more and promised to take down ‘The Woman From Hell’ in Brisbane.
Prior to arriving in Brisbane, Storm took the opportunity to repay all the tributes May had paid to her by dressing as ‘The Glamour’ for a match on Dynamite, even giving her post-match interview in an accent that attempted to copy Mariah’s English tone. This irked the champion, and she took out her frustration in her next Collision match against a competitor with an uncanny resemblance to Toni Storm before a quick post-match switch saw the pair engulfed in another brawl.
It was clear that the mind games had worked, and, although Mariah would insist the ending of Grand Slam would copy that of their Wembley Stadium outing, Storm’s homecoming would prove vital in her redemption. They met in Australia and wrestled a more scaled back match that, while it did have rough undertones, felt more like a genuine attempt to find out who was the better wrestler between the two. Mariah had been pushing the idea that she’d surpassed Toni Storm, but had she?
The pair traded signature moves, but, because they knew each other so well at that point, it came down to the differentials that edged one ahead of the other by the smallest of margins. They both kicked out of everything the other threw, but Storm’s portrayal of herself allowed her to be sharp on her basics and she reclaimed the gold with, you guessed it, an Inside Cradle. ‘Timeless’ Toni had levelled the score and reclaimed her gold, but most knew better than to expect a curtain call just yet.
The new champion, who couldn’t escape May was taken out by her. Mariah cradled the fallen Toni in her arms and uttered the words: “You never did know how to write an ending, did you?”. May made a vow to write their ending in Toni Storm’s blood, with the ‘Timeless’ one later retaliating by threatening to plummet ‘The Glamour’ into crippling mediocrity. To have their final moment together, to share the limelight, to have a Hollywood ending.
With a portrait of Storm’s betrayal displayed on the entrance ramp, Mariah emerged, her gear resembling a wedding dress, signifying the false love and commitment she once held dear – Toni was as focused as she’d ever been. Immediately, eyes locked only on each other, the pair raced into action and didn’t look back. This was being described as their ending, this was their chance to go out with a bang.
After sending Mariah off the stage and through a table, Storm dragged her foe to ringside and it was here the real precedent was set. Threatening a Storm Zero onto the steel steps, Mariah reversed the match’s momentum and delivered one of her own, prompting one of the most impactful crimson masks the industry has ever seen. Toni’s face was, in an instant, entirely painted with blood, and Mariah revelled in it.
But, a chair-assisted Hip Attack to Storm later, we reach what is perhaps the most telling point of the match. Storm brings in a bucket containing a broken champagne bottle and May, not to be outdone, played her part as understudy one last time by revealing one on the other side of the ring too. Introducing tape, Toni willingly and with conviction wrapped her hand, while Mariah struggled to have the same assurance.
She pushed through, but, as Storm began to berate her former partner, May looked up at her opponent with discomfort, regret and maybe some remorse. The body was moving forward but the mind was doing everything to stop. She was in too deep to ever consider turning back, but the reality of the situation weighed heavy.
The mask slipped, May wasn’t ’The Woman From Hell’ anymore, she was more human now than she’d ever presented herself to be. It was too much, but she had to continue. She screamed and screamed as she pushed her closed fist onto the collection of cut glass, something which didn’t appear to affect the Storm half as much. In the ring, there wasn’t much to split the two, but we were seeing emotional trauma fire Storm, the more experienced wrestler of them further than she’d ever been before.
The glass-infested duel commenced and, after a few close calls, Mariah was the one struck with the shards. She didn’t even graze Toni with her fist. All the preparation it took that pushed herself beyond what was reasonable, it wasn’t worth it. The remainder of the glass from both buckets was emptied onto the canvas.
‘The Glamour’, now bloodied in her own right, shrieked with both fear and pain as she was dragged mercilessly back into the ring to have the broken neck of the champagne bottle pushed into her forehead. Responding like a wounded animal, May’s only response was to swing the bottle from her own bucket at the leg of Toni Storm. She was hurt, fearful and just trying to survive.
A headscissors saw the ‘Timeless’ one land directly onto the glass, followed up swiftly by a May Day, but it didn’t get the job done. Storm’s flame wouldn’t be extinguished, and the moment was hammered home when we saw a shot from above, framing the star laying in a pool of broken glass, her upper body almost entirely covered in her own blood.
Even though her struggle was clear, Mariah still kicked out of the Storm Zero as her pride overrode the pain of this grotesque love affair. Toni wanted to punish her betrayer, while May, even after everything, still wanted to be seen in the same light as her senior and couldn’t be beaten. Then, the blood-ridden shoe that had hung over both of them for eight months returned for one last act.
Storm completed her revenge. She whipped Mariah with the World Championship belt over and over, survived one last crazed burst of life from May and then nailed her with the shoe. Finally, a Storm Zero onto a table printed with the phrase ‘The Hollywood Ending’ brought this scene to a close. Toni retained the title and laid on the body of her opponent, connecting them one last time.
The thing is, both women have threatened to wipe the other from history at various points but, if they were being true, neither truly wanted that to happen. A story filled with love, betrayal and attachment couldn’t exist without one another, and all they really ever wanted was to be remembered.
Their battle in the City of Angels was the end product of lovers driven apart by professional jealousy and the desire to be seen as better than their counterpart. But, even after betrayal, even after their blood-soaked fight, hints of their loyalty to each other remained. Tearing flesh and bone under the brightest lights, in arguably the greatest women’s wrestling trilogy on American soil, they had their moment in the spotlight together as they’d always wanted.
Mariah May and Toni Storm, a love once in a generation.
