Turning on her mentor and idol, Toni Storm was the most shocking move made by Mariah May in her entire career but it could also be the turning point. For years now, she’s been trying to break out into the scene and a big step in the process was to sign up for All Elite Wrestling. Entering a beef with Storm might have paved the way for her to become a singles star power.
The 2024 AEW Owen Hart Foundation Tournament winner is essentially on her path to becoming a bonafide champion and she’s undoubtedly proved herself to be someone who can garner attention from the audience. The potential was always within her and she was luckily spotted by AEW President Tony Khan to come to the big league of the United States from Japan.
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In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Khan explained how he first reached out to Mariah May in the 2023 summer which was months before she ultimately debuted in AEW. A conversation with Bryan Danielson was also mentioned by Khan where he essentially discussed the long-term plans for her including this fangirl storyline with Storm.
“Bryan asked, ‘Have you seen Mariah May?’” Tony Khan said. “I said I had, and that I was amazed at how, very quickly, she’d become one of the top stars in Stardom. We both agreed she was very polished and charismatic. That’s when I asked Bryan if he’d seen All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard.”
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Mariah May’s first AEW storyline received backlash from fans
The AEW head honcho further noted that he asked Mariah May to perform something different upon her arrival, and they also needed to topple through some backlash to get to this point. Getting over with negative reactions for being Storm’s fan, Khan believes that the former STARDOM performer became a huge star power in today’s wrestling world,
“There was even some backlash at the beginning when people were pushing back that she came into AEW as this big fan of Toni Storm, which was very different from what she was doing in Stardom. Now we’re going to learn how and why she did all this, and how she became one of the biggest stars in wrestling in less than a year in AEW.”
Before coming to All Elite Wrestling, Mariah May had already established a decent status by performing in the Japanese promotion STARDOM and winning the Goddess of Stardom Championship with Club Venus stablemate Mina Shirakawa (as the combined tag team of Rose Gold). She also qualified for the 5*STAR Grand Prix, defeating the likes of Shirakawa and AZM.
