5 things you didn't know about Toni Storm

Toni Rossall (born 19 October 1995) is an Auckland born New Zealand professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE performing on the NXT UK brand under the ring name Toni Storm.

She is a former World of Stardom Champion as well as the SWA World Champion and has a lot of achievements under her belt before making her way to WWE. Toni is known for her work in the European independent circuit, where she is a former Progress Women and is a two-time and current wXw Women's Champion.

In WWE, she competed in the 2017 and 2018 Mae Young Classic, making it to the Semi-Finals in 2017 and the finals of the tournament in 2018 at WWE Evolution.

On October 28, 2018, at WWE Evolution she defeated the fan-favorite Io Shirai to win the Mae Young Classic and thus become a part of the NXT roster for the long haul.

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With her eyes firmly set on the women’s championships in WWE and the ambition to make it to the main roster, there is a lot that lies ahead for the young Storm. Let’s take a look at 5 interesting things about the impressive superstar and how that can help her ultimately become the face of WWE’s women division.

#5 She has traveled a lot to train

Born in Auckland, New Zealand she made her first wrestling debut at the young age of thirteen at the Impact Pro Wrestling Australia (IPWA) on 9th October 2009. After her debut, she felt that she needed to train harder and she convinced her mother to let her move to Liverpool, England with her grandmother.

Toni trained under Dean Allmark during her time in Liverpool, who is a professional English Wrestler.

Toni calls Liverpool her home but her love for wrestling has made her travel far and wide for training. She has spent most of the previous year training in Japan, which isn't an easy feat as she loves being home and spending time in her own bed.

This ambitious girl stepping out of the comfort zone to challenge her skills is the most important thing which has brought her a lot of success at such a young age.

#4 Toni has had an auspicious wrestling career

Storm joined progressive wrestling in 2015, where she lost her debut match. Later in May 2017, Storm became the first ever Progress Women's Champion, this match was historical as it marked the first time that female wrestlers competed in the main event of a Progress event.

Throughout the year, Storm went on to successfully defend the championship numerous times against multiple wrestlers, such as Kay Lee Ray, Laura Di Matteo, and Candice LeRae.

In 2016, she began working for the Japanese World Wonder Ring Stardom promotion, where she won the SWA World Championship on 24 July. Toni won the 2017 Cinderella Tournament on 30 April as well as the 2017 5 Star GP, becoming the first wrestler to win the two tournaments in the same year.

On 24 September, Storm became the new World of Stardom Champion and later lost the title on 9 June 2018 against Kagetsu.

#3 She likes training in Japan

This doesn't come as a big surprise, Japan is arguably the best for women's wrestling. When other places took women's wrestling as nothing more than the bra and panty matches, wrestling in Japan was always taken seriously, especially after the 1980s when JWP Joshi Puroresu really took off.

Some of the most famous WWE female wrestlers like Asuka and Kairi Sane come from Japan. Hall of Fame performers like Bull Nakano, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota, and the Crush Gals are still renowned today.

Because of its prowess in professional wrestling, Japan is a perfect place for foreigners to make their name. It isn't easy though, if you can make it in Japan, you can make it anywhere else in the world.

Japan wasn't easy for Storm either, as she's mentioned herself. And it's not just because of the wrestling, it's also the communication gap. Even though she had studied a bit of Japanese in school, Toni says that it took her days to translate and figure out what the referees were trying to communicate to her, so she has been using someone to translate for her.

#2 She spent most of her earlier years wrestling men

When Storm began training at the age of 12, she joined a small wrestling company on the Gold Coast, and for the longest time she was the only girl in it, hence she spent most of her earlier years intergender wrestling. She claims she merely wrestled with 3 girls during a time span of over 2 years.

Women fighting men is uncommon in the WWE world of sports entertainment as well because of the image it projects. Ronda Rousey and Triple H's encounter in WrestleMania when Ronda lifted Triple H up on her shoulders has been a rare exception in modern times.

Storm proved her talent when she battled Timothy Thatcher. She claims the match was very hard and it took a lot out of her, however unlike her earlier training years when she wrestled with other men because of a lack of women wrestlers, now she doesn't need to because of the ample female talent that's present in the WWE.

#1 Her dream was to join the WWE

Storm spent most of her time training day and night, far away from home. All this training was for an ultimate goal for Toni - to make it to one of the WWE leagues. She finally managed to get featured in last year’s Mae Young Classic tournament.

“My goal from the very beginning has been WWE. It’s what I’ve wanted since I was 10,” she said.

She claims the experience was nerve-racking. She spent 10 days in Orlando getting prepped for the event and eventually made it to the semi-final where she eventually lost to Kairi Sane.

Many fans expected the WWE to sign Toni up after that, however that didn't happen. She, however, won the Mae Young Classic Tournament in 2018 proving that hard work does pay off and dreams do come true.

Toni is still in great spirits though and at the age of only 23, there are many more opportunities coming her way.

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Edited by Nishant Jayaram