Highlights

• Toni Storm's time in WWE was underwhelming, with a lack of character development and unsuccessful championship opportunities.
• Her main roster booking on SmackDown was awful, with minimal matches, unimpressive storylines, and a humiliating feud with Charlotte Flair.
• Storm realized that WWE wasn't working for her and chose to leave, citing a lack of enjoyment and job security, leading her to join AEW where she has found success and fulfillment in her career.

Since joining AEW in 2022, Toni Storm has become the first ever two-time AEW Women’s World Champion, having far more success than she had done in several years - since before her time in WWE in fact. Storm signed with WWE in 2018, having a stint that stretched for nearly four years until her last match in December of 2021. Her WWE exit came out of nowhere, with her only recently receiving her main roster call-up to Friday Night SmackDown. However, her spell on the blue brand didn’t last all too long, as she parted ways with the promotion and eventually joined AEW. There will be some fans who wonder why exactly she left WWE.

Toni Storm’s WWE Run Was Underwhelming

Toni Storm’s signature for WWE in 2018 saw her reach the finals of the Mae Young Classic and then become a focal point of the NXT UK brand’s women’s division, where she would defeat Rhea Ripley to become the NXT UK Women’s Champion. With her young age and already polished style inside the ring, Storm was someone who had a lot of potential and looked like a future WWE star for sure. In 2020, she would finally find herself on the US version of NXT, though her time there wasn’t all that impressive.

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A lack of character, little to no direction, and losing her two shots for the NXT Women’s Championship against Io Shirai resulted in a surprisingly poor NXT run for Storm, despite her being the perfect name to build the whole brand around. Whether it was the pandemic or other factors, it isn’t entirely clear why it didn’t work out for Storm in NXT. Before long, she ended up on the main roster, receiving her call-up to SmackDown in 2021. Her booking left a lot to be desired, which is a big reason as to why she left WWE.

Toni Storm’s Main Roster Booking Was Awful

For the first three months of her main roster run, Storm had just two matches on SmackDown, spending several weeks doting over Dolph Ziggler in a character direction which couldn’t have suited her less. From there, she lost in two minutes in the first round of the Queen’s Crown tournament, was one of the first few wrestlers eliminated from the Raw vs. SmackDown Survivor Series elimination match, and simply just looked bad. And then, out of nowhere, she was thrust into the title scene to challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

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Fans thought this was a sign of good things to come for Storm, but the feud saw her get humiliated by Flair, getting a pie in the face in a moment where Storm looked like a joke. Allegedly, this was originally supposed to be a segment in which Storm was stripped of her clothes instead, though this was talked down thankfully. With very few opportunities to showcase her talents as a performer, with short matches and awful storylines, Storm walked out of WWE, requesting her release and it being granted.

Toni Storm Realized Her Time In WWE Wasn’t Working

Toni Storm has revealed her mindset when it comes to leaving WWE, speaking on The Sessions with Renee Pacquette on her exit. "When I went from NXT to SmackDown. My main goal in wrestling was to be on Raw or SmackDown, main roster, WWE TV. I got there and figured it out pretty soon. I realized this is just not going to work out. Also, I'm 26. I want to have a really good time at this job. I want to have a really good career and I want to enjoy part of it. I just wasn't enjoying it for so long and I abruptly quit. I woke up that morning having no idea that I was going to quit by that night.” (H/T WrestlingNews.co)

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She went on to talk about how the lack of job security, with WWE firing talent here, there, and everywhere, that it wasn’t worth the constant worry of picking up the phone and getting the sack. Storm explained that her thought process was if WWE didn’t care about her, then why should she care. She made sure to note that there was no bad blood towards WWE, with the door being potentially open for a return.

Storm would go on to sign with AEW, where she has been booked incredibly strongly, winning the AEW Women’s World Championship on two occasions and winning the vast majority of her matches, losing just eight out of her fifty matches thus far in the company. Her time there has been far more rewarding than her multi-year spell in WWE, and it is hard to hard argue that she didn’t make the correct decision.