There’s something poetic about Mariah May’s path to Wembley Stadium for her AEW All In Women’s World Championship match against Toni Storm on Sunday. She grew up watching football games and concerts at the venue where she’ll be featured prominently against the woman whose path she followed to stardom.
She didn’t know how this story would culminate, how it would build to one of the greatest long term stories in AEW history, or that she’d have the opportunity to further progress the promotion’s women’s division into a focal point of weekly television.
All she knew after a 5 a.m. phone call with AEW CEO Tony Khan was that this role, this story, this opportunity was made for her. To be featured in this fashion is a dream come true for the British wrestler.
“I never imagined I would wrestle (at Wembley), and then AEW finally brought wrestling back to Wembley and kind of created this resurgence in the UK,” May tells Uproxx Sports. “So, to be able to be a part of that means so much. But the part that I’m looking forward to the most is ending Toni Storm’s career.”
May says what you see on screen is the exact nature of their relationship behind the scenes. She acknowledges that Storm was “always the top girl” in the UK, and admits that she “followed her footsteps as far as possible,” whether that was in Stardom or AEW.
“And that’s exactly why I’m going to beat her,” May says. “Because she essentially created me.”
May’s end goal was always to move to America and to wrestle on television. She saw what Storm was able to do at a young age, moving from New Zealand to the UK, working all over Europe and then Japan, and modeled her path forward based on that success.
“Once I started wrestling, I realized just how broad the wrestling industry is. I discovered Japan, I discovered Stardom. I really wanted to find who I was and to grow as a wrestler and learn all these different styles across the UK, across Europe, the Japanese style,” May says.
“For me, once AEW came around, it revolutionized wrestling, and it actually brought me back into American wrestling. I was very focused on what I was doing in Japan and becoming such a strong all-around competitor. And then Tony Khan reached out to me, and we talked at length about this incredible idea that he had. And that’s the main reason why I decided to sign with AEW so soon. I thought I might stay in Japan a little bit longer, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity because the storyline was so incredible.”
In less than a year, May and Storm have worked with RJ City, who she calls an “amazing writer,” and Khan to develop an onscreen story that incrementally built investment and intrigue as their dynamic evolved. It was one of the more straightforward storylines that didn’t involve a ton of twists and turns.
It was simply executed perfectly.
“It threads so deeply into our real life because I have really followed in her footsteps all the way until now, where I finally get to stand side by side with her at Wembley,” May says.
May thought “it felt like fate” when Khan announced that the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament winner would get a title shot at Wembley. While it’s early in her career, the resolution from the best of friends to bitter enemies is something May claims she’s planned for a long time.
“Whilst Wembley and the AEW Women’s World Championship is an incredible added bonus, the goal has always been Toni Storm,” she says. “Toni Storm is the best wrestler that we have, but her weakness is that she’s completely head in the clouds and away with the fairies. I made her fall in love with me, I made her think she was my own mother, and the fact that I stabbed her in the forehead with a shoe when her own catchphrase is ‘watch for the shoe’ entirely embodies why I will beat her at Wembley. She’s not going to see it coming.”
From a broader perspective, May sees her story as part of a larger movement across the women’s division.
“I think it’s such a positive for the AEW women’s division. I feel like we get a lot of unwarranted criticism, when in actuality we do at least three women’s segments every Dynamite. We have long-running storylines, long-running feuds. You’re seeing three women’s matches at Wembley between the main show and the pre-show, and to be a part of the biggest women’s storyline that I think we’ve ever had in AEW, it’s such an honor, but I think it’s also completely justified,” May says. “I think we’ve all worked incredibly hard, from the writing team with R.J. to Tony Khan’s original idea to Toni and I. I think it’s completely deserved and what everyone is going to see at Wembley is going to be the cinematic masterpiece that perfectly concludes a year of just hard work and heart that has gone into this.”
With a roster bursting with talent, May has endless directions to go after Sunday. She’s long spoken about a dream match with the current TBS Women’s Champion, Mercedes Moné, and seems open to the idea of a blockbuster showdown in the near future.
“Mercedes Moné was a huge signing for AEW and she is a conversation starter, so it’s always good to mix it up with people that are going to make people talk. I think she’s an incredible wrestler and I have my eyes on her match, too,” May says.
“I’m interested to see who prevails, if it will be her or if it will be Britt Baker, who’s obviously the AEW original girl, who I’d love to have a singles (match) with as well. Either way, I know I’m walking out of Wembley as the Women’s World Champion, which is the top women’s belt. So whether it be Britt or Mercedes, I’d love to wrestle them. Maybe title for title down the line, maybe next year in Texas.”