Toni Storm Thought About Leaving Pro Wrestling Forever After WWE
Former "NXT UK" Women's Champion Toni Storm has admitted that she considered leaving the wrestling business forever after the end of her WWE career.
Storm was a recent guest on the "AEW Unrestricted" podcast and reflected on her career since deciding to walk away from WWE. The AEW star quit the company late in 2021, while she was in the middle of a feud with Charlotte Flair over the "SmackDown" Women's Championship — her final WWE match was a loss to Flair in a title match.
"At first, definitely I was like, 'Oh, well this is shockingly terrible, I am gonna leave forever, this is me done,'" Storm recalled. "I mean, it didn't last long ... I 'm not done, I'm never done. I'm a lifer, I'll probably be around until I am old as hell and I'll probably have kids that wrestle and I'm here for life. What else am I going to do? I don't have any other qualifications, I don't like anything else."
In recent years, Storm has been open about her mental health, particularly after private photos of her were leaked onto the internet, which led to her leaving social media. She's described the circumstances surrounding her departure from WWE as "an out-of-body experience" and says she "lost [her] mind." But the solution, it turned out, wasn't quitting wrestling — it was taking better care of herself.
"I went through a hell of an ordeal not so long ago, and it was quite the toxic, stressful situation," Storm said. "I feel like I've really been doing well coming out of that, better than I thought. Really growing, really maturing, and taking really good care of myself, more than I ever have. So,I think it's important for me to be like that so that I can deliver these matches to the best of my ability because, to be honest, there's been times in the past where I just haven't been in a good spot mentally, and I've seen it in my work.
"I'm looking back at some of the stuff I've done and I'm like, 'Wow that was terrible, I was totally not in the right mental state,' I was not in a good state of mind, I wasn't taking care of myself, I was really down, I wasn't talking to people, I wasn't asking for help. I don't know, something happened last year, I guess, where I just kind of snapped out of it and I was like, 'Right, I am going to take care of me, and me first, because I'm not good to anyone unless I do that.' So I've undergone this transformation of just like, 'Keep a clear head and get your sh*t together, Toni.'"
Storm debuted with AEW in March and has become a heavily featured part of the company's women's division. She has the chance to earn a spot on the upcoming Double Or Nothing card this week when she takes on Britt Baker in the semi-finals of the Owen Hart Cup Tournament on "AEW Dynamite."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.