Storm further reflects on the end of her time in WWE.
In December 2021, Toni Storm opted to leave WWE after joining the main roster in the summer of that year. She wrestled six TV matches throughout her time on the SmackDown brand.
Storm is now with All Elite Wrestling and she spoke with Renee Paquette about the past year of her career on Renee’s podcast. Storm opened up more about her decision to leave WWE and where her mindset was at the time. She felt she was not appreciated and that time on the main roster crushed her love for wrestling.
Yeah, I didn’t feel that appreciated a lot, you know what I mean? And I just felt like they didn’t, at times, have very much respect for me and it just was — it totally — I feel like over time, they kind of just crushed my love for wrestling. It just wasn’t even wrestling anymore. You’re not even allowed to say ‘wrestling’. You get put in a group text like, ‘Don’t say professional wrestling in promos’ and this and the other and I’m like, oh yeah, I understand but like whatever, but this — I don’t know. Over time, it just kind of — there’s so much f*ckery, you know? So much bullsh*t, each to their own. Some people don’t get that and some people do and I was just sick of it, I was just tired of — what am I doing this for? What am I trying to prove to anyone? Will anyone think any differently of me really? Will people really care where I go and do fake wrestling moves? Do people really care that bad that I’ve gotta be miserable day in, day out? Just because people will go, ‘Oh, that was ungrateful and she shouldn’t have done that,’ blah, blah. Well I was unhappy and why should I be unhappy? So that I can do WrestleMania? Okay. That’s nice and everything but I’m still gonna be miserable the next day, and I thought my whole purpose in life was to go to WWE but then over time, I realized, it’s just pro wrestling that I love. It’s not a company that I love. I just love pro wrestling, what it is.
The March 30th AEW Dynamite featured the arrival of Toni Storm. She qualified for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament and made it to the semi final where she lost to eventual tournament winner Britt Baker.
Storm said she did not have much notice going into her AEW debut and she got the call at a time when she was unsure of her future. Toni went on to state that once the conversation began, she did not hesitate to accept.
That was a trip wasn’t it? [Her AEW debut] That was weird. I didn’t really have much notice going into that. It was kind of a last minute thing. I had no idea what the future had, you know, for me. I didn’t know if I was gonna get a job. I didn’t know if I was gonna — I had no idea what was next and then I get a call last second after my 90 days was up and I was like, ‘I mean, okay.’ You know, I didn’t even hesitate. I just went, ‘Yeah, okay. I’ll be there. See you soon.
Following this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, POST Wrestling will be live with a new Rewind-A-Dynamite which will be available to watch at this link.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
