Mariah May coming to All Elite Wrestling garnered big-time attention in the Fall of 2023 and so did her association with the AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm. To date, the UK-born bombshell female pro-wrestler is yet to showcase her in-ring skills in AEW but that time is approaching as confessed during the December 23 episode of Collision.
Before coming to the AEW, Mariah May experienced a WWE tryout in 2019 at a WWE Performance Center in Enfield, England, and she obtained some valuable advice from a former WWE trainer. Appearing on the Talk Is Jericho podcast (via Wrestling Inc.), the AEW star revealed that she had three matches, assuming that it was for the WWE but it was for NXT UK, “Whereas WWE, I would have signed to that early on because there’s a PC and you’re going to train and stuff.”
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Mariah May auditioned for NXT UK Brand to receive valuable lessons
It was also revealed that during the tryout, Sarah Stock advised her to travel and gather more experience. WWE did have auditioned her, but the NXT UK brand didn’t have a full-time training center, and the brand was later abandoned with the hope of an NXT Europe launch reportedly set for 2024.
“Sarah Stock gave me the advice to go and travel … They knew about me before and they’d spoken to me before. Then NXT UK happened and they’re like, ‘Come and try out for this.’ Then they said to travel more. They wanted me to get more experience because with NXT UK, they didn’t have a full-time PC. It was like once every two months or something,” Mariah May added.
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It was after the WWE tryout that Mariah May embarked on a journey through the independent circuit in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She made appearances in promotions like Revolution Pro Wrestling, Ultimate Pro Wrestling, and Combat Zone Wrestling before heading to Japan.
The big break in her career came when Mariah May debuted in Japan at World Wonder Ring Stardom in 2022. During her Japan stint, she featured in wrestling against the likes of Mina Shirakawa and Unagi Sayaka. The Club Venus stable was also formed as she joined forces with Shirakawa and Xia Brookside. She also won the Goddess of Stardom titles alongside Shirakawa during this tenure.
