Toni Storm On Wanting A Match With Becky Lynch, HHH, NXT UK & More

Toni Storm, the 2018 Mae Young Classic winner, recently spoke to SportBIBLE about what it means for her to be in NXT UK, competing at WWE Evolution, and wanting a dream match against SmackDown Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch. Below are some highlights:

Toni Storm On Wrestling For NXT UK:

We’ve had so many hidden gems in the women’s division in the UK that haven’t been able to, you know, be on the grand stage that is NXT UK in WWE. So, NXT UK is gonna be able to show the world what incredible hidden gems we have for women’s wrestling.

There’s definitely a lot of pressure and it’s definitely very difficult to deal with because, yeah, there’s a lot of weight on my shoulders and a lot of pressure to be the best in any locker room. But I just keep doing my thing. I keep pushing through. I figured that if I can come from nothing in Australia all the way to NXT UK, then there’s no limit to what I can do. So I just need to keep pushing like I always have done.

Toni Storm On The Toughness Of Rhea Ripley:

I’m not going to lie and say I’m not intimidated when I’m in the ring with, you know, athletic machines like Rhea Ripley [and] girls like Meiko Satomura and Io Shirai. It’s an intimidating world and it’s a very high-pressure situation, but I just got to remember and keep in the back of my head where I came from and the journey that it has taken for me to get here. If I can overcome that, then I can overcome anyone.

Toni Storm On A Potential NXT UK Women’s Tag Team Championship:

Of course! I mean, I’ve always been quite the lone wolf throughout my entire career, but I can be quite friendly. I’m not sure who I would pick. That would take a lot of intricate thinking. It would definitely [be] only the best partner — someone that can keep me in line. Good luck to them. Ha-ha!

Toni Storm On Moving To Liverpool To Advance Her Wrestling Career:

I was quite lucky. When I first came out here — from about 17 to 18 — I was just on and off again. By the time I was 19, I was fully moved here. But I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of Dean Allmark, who is a trainer like quite local, and he helped me get to where I wanted to be. It was baby steps at first. It was really hard at first because I moved over with nothing. I was lucky enough to have a bit of family support, but I essentially moved over with about £30.

I trained as much as I could, went to as many shows as I could, started at the bottom and then eventually developed into bigger and bigger shows. I started going around [the] Europe scene more into Germany, Italy and then I eventually did Japan, which helped boost my reputation so I could come back and get on to bigger shows like Progress, which has helped me to lead to now, NXT UK.

Just NXT UK, as a whole, I’m so proud of the brand. It’s been a long time coming. It’s such a hotspot over here; it has been for so many years. We have some of the best talent in the world, and now we finally have a brand where we can showcase that to millions of people now, which is what, to be honest, we always needed.

Especially being in Liverpool, I’ve already got goosebumps thinking about it because things really began to kick off for me when I moved to Liverpool. Things really started to move forward. Yeah, it’s a big part of me. It’s a big part of my journey, so hopefully people see that.

Toni Storm On Working With Triple H:

It’s incredible. He’s the man. He’s been there and he’s done it all. He’s someone who I was such a huge fan of for so many years and then I get to meet him, get advice from him, work with him. And it’s just incredible. I feel like in just a short time that I’ve been able to grab some advice off him I’ve learnt so much just from those little bits. I’m very lucky; I’m very blessed to be able to work with literally the best of the best and it’s helped me so much.

Toni Storm On Wrestling At WWE Evolution & The Mae Young Classic:

It was definitely a very stressful experience, very rewarding in the most incredible experience of my life, but the journey was hard. Because I made it to [the] semi-finals [in] 2017 and going into 2018 I was like, ‘well, if I get less than semi-finals, then that’s a knock on me.’ So I had so much pressure, so much drive and determination to get to the finals because that had sat with me for over a year and I was like, ‘I have to get to the finals. I have to win this thing.’ It’s all I need to do, so I just kept that vision in mind and it worked out for the best. Ha-ha!

Toni Storm On Her Dream Opponents From NXT US, RAW, And SmackDown:

There’s so many! I’ve already faced Kairi Sane; I’ve already faced Shayna Baszler. I would love to step in there with the likes of Deonna Purrazzo, a very good friend of mine. I faced her in Japan, but I would like to see where she’s at now and see how far I can push myself. Bianca Blair, very incredible and very strong. Don’t know how I would do it, but I would find a way! I would say those two for now.

I’ve always dreamt of having a match with Becky Lynch. I’ve always wanted that to happen. She said it at the 2017 Mae Young that she would love a match. And then I was speaking to Sasha [Banks] in a recent interview and she said she would love to step in the ring with me. Actually, kind of thinking about it that might be quite good!

To read the full interview, click HERE.