On Toni Storm and The Reinvention of Reinvention

Timeless Toni Storm

Yesterday was All In Texas. I was excited for this pay-per-view in ways I haven’t felt in years, whether we’re referencing AEW, WWE or any other wrestling organization. It’s how I felt for every single PPV that AEW ran for the first two years of it’s existence. At that time it was both the freshness in comparision to WWE’s frozen in carbonite storytelling and dog-food based matches but also, and this can’t be understated, EVERY single match was a banger. Many of the early AEW PPV’s quite literally exausted me with how intense match after match was. Eventually though, that started to fade.

After the first few years there were a lot of aspects I just didn’t enjoy as much. A major one was the women’s booking. For years the women’s division felt like they’d get a little shine every so often but wasn’t held up to the level I wanted to see. If AEW ran a women’s only PPV it could be absolutely incredible, but I digress. I eventually stopped watching outside of clips here and there. It wasn’t grabbing me as a whole. Except, there was one person that was: Toni Storm.

During the initial “Timeless” run, I struggled at first to understand the character. Eventually I began to like it but wasn’t totally sold. She began doing more press in character and building towards something else. Ironically, the thing that finally crystallized it for me was when she stopped being Timeless Toni. Toni is great but hearing her talk like an old timey person for the 1000th time didn’t work for me anymore. On social media I wrote that the character had ran it’s course. In my eyes they’d wrung every drop from it and I was ready to move on.

Except it wasn’t done yet and Storm did something I’m unsure if I’ve ever seen done so effectively before: she basically doubled, tripled then quadrupled down. But first she had to be a different old character first.

I’LL FOLLOW THE PATH THAT LEADS ME TO MY DREAMS

I’M TAKING A CHANCE, I DO IT JUST FOR ME

One aspect of wrestling that tends not to get discussed enough yet is incredibly important from a storyline standpoint is logic. Yes, in a situation where two people in their underwear dance around each other, logic is what separates great wrestling from good. Sometimes the only motivation a person needs is to win. Whether it’s for a championship, a shot at one, or really just because, a win can be enough motivation for a one-off match. A storyline though? That needs progression. A person loses and wants revenge, the other wins and rests on their laurels or moves on. Maybe they won in a way that wasn’t respectful or outright cheating. Even in a “thrown” together match, the outcome can lead to wonderful things if given the chance. Little clues throughout, gestures and moves.

Logic is a basic aspect of these stories though. If you lost, you’d probably be mad. How mad? That would depend on a number of factors but you get the idea. Long builds don’t necessarily mean two wrestlers are constantly facing each other week after week or even directly interacting in a clear way. When Cody Rhodes won the title, a core part was not just that he won: it was that there were YEARS worth of story leading to that moment. Without going into dramatic detail

• Roman Reigns had a lock on the championship for 3+ years. Every single person that had tried to take him or the Bloodline on had lost.
• Sami Zayn was, for a short period, a member of the Bloodline and the last 8 months or so of that storyline involved him joining, getting kicked out and then trying to get revenge.
• Throughout it all Kevin Owens was trying to let anyone that would listen know how bad Roman was. He told Sami, he told Cody, he told Randy Orton. He became the voice of reason.
• There were many other characters involved but ultimately many of these stories were not just calling back to the moment this started but to in some cases decades of relationships. Kevin and Sami had known each other for years and although they had fought many times before, Kevin was trying his best to look out for Sami. That relationship became yet another core part of the unraveling of the bloodline.
• Finally you have Cody. The chase for the championship and losing on his first shot goes back a decade to when he left WWE, started AEW and during that time never could or never did become a “World Champion”. It was a tribute to his dad, to the fans that sang his entrance. Cody winning the title wasn’t just the logical conclusion for his arc and for the fans. Every fan was ready to see the bad guy finally get his comeuppance.

None of that works without logic. Each step of the way, for several years, was building towards this moment. I bring this up because ALL of the greatest storylines ever have this kind of logical build.

Toni Storm losing her championship at All In 2024 lead to a hiatus. Time away, even for a short period, is a staple of wrestling. It can be difficult to know what you have sometimes if it’s always there.

Except the Toni that eventually returned? It wasn’t Timeless at all. It was the Rockstar.

Rockstar

Right after she came back, Timeless Toni Storm didn’t exist. It was Toni Time again and it was exactly what was needed. Storm’s character didn’t just go on hiatus, in return Timeless Toni was gone entirely. Now she was back to the character she’d been on the Indies, in WWE and even in AEW initially. Here’s an interview that was done right after her return with RJ City.

[embed]Portrait of a Rock Star! (AEW)

Storm had been in a time warp and although it was sort of jarring, it was also really fun. Ultimately it was all a ruse but that break followed by the reveal was also tied to a long term story and set of matches with Mariah May. This is another core part of the Toni reboot: not only did she not do it alone (because no one does), unlike a lot of wrestlers in similar positions she did something exceedingly rare: helped to put other people over and bring attention to them.

It’s not that Storm is fully unique in this, especially in this curren generation: there are many wrestlers who try their best to elevate others to varying levels of success. There are layers to this too.

When AEW first launched there was a tv match featuring Kenny Omega. In the match Omega gave a ton of offense to his opponent, except it wasn’t another “top star”. The wrestling media and internet at large all pointed out that a star of Omega’s level shouldn’t give that much to a none star. I was always fine with it for several reasons. First, we do not know what the plans for anyone are until we see them. Fans will turn themselves into knots fantasy booking but at the end of the day, they are still fans. If it comes out of nowhere it can certainly be jarring and set the whole thing in the wrong direction.

Historically, wrestling is about a good guys vs a bad guy, cut and dry — black hat/white hat. Wrestling is a morality tale where sometimes, no matter how badly we want it, the good guy can’t always win. There’s a very thin line there: how much does one wrestler give to help pick up another? What would legitimize them? Or the most important thing: should they? For fans it’s a clear answer that couched in 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s history: no. Prior to WCW Nitro, TV was solely for the purpose of selling live shows and pay-per-views, so you didn’t give good matches on tv. One star would beat the lowest tier wrestling in 2 minutes and that’d be that. You did not give anything.

That Kenny Omega situation brought up a really core component of what AEW wanted to be, early in it’s existence. Omega got pilloried by a subset of people who yearned for the times when a top star would absolutely demolish a “lesser” talent. Just because that’s how something may have been, it doesn’t mean that’s how it should be. The part that these people don’t understand is that winning and losing doesn’t matter. This may surprise you.

Wrestling is as much as about promoting yourself as making your opponent matter. If you’re a top star and you beat a nobody, what did you do? There’s an art to this: give too much and look weak, give too little and, again, you got nothing. This goes for every wrestler in the match. If done correctly two people with zero reason to be wrestling can create magic.

Toni Storm also don’t operate under that old philisophy. During her recent championship run she wrestled consistently, as a fighting champion. She won and yet, as time as gone on has mastered the art lifting up the other wrestlers in her matches.

Eventually we learned that Rockstar Toni was all a ruse. She did not forget who she was but, in an effort to win back her title, had been acting. Storm had a great series of matches with Mariah May with the ultimately culmination being a win by Storm to regain her championship.

Outside of Storm, another wrestler has been winning championships everywhere. That wrestler, Mercedes Mone and Storm have been on an (AEW) Collision course. All In was that match, one that has been building in different ways for some time. Mone’s run of championships across different promotions in comparison to Storm’s world championship always felt like there was likely to be a moment where they finally had to meet. Last month it was finally set when Mone won the Owen Cup and received an automatic title bid.

One month before that though? Toni Storm cut this promo:

[embed]Timeless Tony Storm

I had been watching more and more AEW over the past 6 months, specifically for Storm and a few other builds. That being said: I’ve been quoting parts of this promo since it aired. The character of Timeless Toni has become more of a fighting champion and a babyface in ways I couldn’t have anticipated when I felt that the character had run it’s course. In all of this, Storm has carried the load for the women’s division across the board. Interviews with the media, standing in on commentary it doesn’t matter: the character just keeps going. Although she would say funny things before it didn’t feel, for lack of a better word, nearly as real. That promo? That feels real (or as real as anything is in this world).

As it built towards All In, Storm and Mone went back and forth. At this past weeks go home Dynamite we got them face to face for a longer promo and got this:

[embed]AEW

They went back and forth as expected but this line towards the end by Storm summarized this character perfectly:

“Legacies don’t exist Mercedes. One day we will all turn to dust and be forgotten. We are all going to die Mercedes! Don’t you get it?All that matters is one moment. The moment where you step into this ring and look me in the eye and you realize that you fear an ordinary life and I only fear an ordinary death.

Now I sincerely believe that you deserve all the titles in the world. But not this one. You will go down as the woman who just couldn’t win the big one.”

There’s a reality to every word that Storm has been saying over this recent run. Yes, there’s often a double entendre or comedic aspect to what she’s saying. When she wants to deliver though? She can.

Mercedes Mone has been on a very good run, especially over the past six to eight months. But she hasn’t been Toni Storm. When they finally met at All In Storm retained the championship in a a awesome match, proving once again that although Mone may be great, she is not yet Timeless.