Depth Triangle

Depth Triangle                                   

 Ethan Brennan - 1/23/2025

Breathless rookie Toni Storm eagerly awaits her opportunity to mix it up with The Vendetta’s Deonna Purrazo.  World Champion Mariah May gloats that she has surpassed the division which catapulted her to greatness in a single year.  Mina Shirakawa looks forward to battling Mercedes Moné title versus title in the Tokyo Dome.  It’s January 2025 and three women are basking in the glory of a stellar 2024, when they set a standard in long-term professional wrestling storytelling that elevates the genre, and is sure to inspire generations to come.  Storm, May, and Shirakawa have been involved in some of the most entertaining television seen in years.  They are women; they are wrestlers; but to call what they’re doing women’s wrestling sounds absurd.  They are some of the best to do it in the business today, regardless of division, company, or gender.  Over the past year or so everything they do has been must-see.  Be it humorous, sexy, or shockingly violent, these three women have brought a depth to the medium that is rarely seen.  This is pro wrestling at its finest.

When Toni Storm was blinded with green spray paint and pinned at AEW All In 2023 in London’s Wembley Stadium by her presumed friend and Outcasts stablemate Saraya, she lost more than just a chance to once again become AEW World Champion.  In the weeks and months to follow, it would become evident that Miss Storm was losing her grip on reality.  Her behaviour became increasingly bizarre.  Her platinum blonde locks and flowing robes were reminiscent of a 1940’s Hollywood starlet.  In the space of a few months Storm metamorphosed from “Toni Time” Toni Storm, technically sound, but short on bombast, to the iconically over-the-top “Timeless” Toni Storm.  This delightfully demented character was hilarious, and more often than not, featured in the most entertaining segment on AEW TV.  The matches were great, but the promo segments were legendary.  Storm would cap off increasingly bizarre promos by reminding her interviewer: “chin up, tits out, and watch for the shoe!”  Usually followed up with Renee Paquette ducking a high-heel that sailed into frame from the direction of the departed starlet.  The “Timeless” gimmick was so successful it was able to support more than Storm alone, for by November she featured a Butler, the World Championship, and an adoring new protégé: enter Mariah May.

Mariah May, Stardom tenure notwithstanding, was a relative unknown to US wrestling audiences in early November 2023, when she was announced as AEW’s latest signing.  It struck a peculiar note at the time as rookies usually come and go, wrestling many an enhancement match to build up their name recognition before receiving the coveted “Is Elite” graphic.  May presents the image of the stereotypical blonde bombshell, but as soon as she steps in the ring it becomes clear she is a rare talent.  Soon after debuting in-ring, May began to rack up wins.  Despite cultivating a positive win/loss record and establishing quite the resumé, May seemed content to persist as Timeless Toni Storm’s “understudy” through the end of 2023 and the early months of 2024.  Things became a little more complicated in the run-up to the Forbidden Door event in June, when Mariah May’s Club Venus stablemate from (World Wonder Ring) Stardom Mina Shirakawa emerged to Challenge Storm for her World Title at the annual cross-promotional special show.  

Mina is an alluring presence who won the hearts of US fans instantaneously.  The “H-Cup Angel” mixes sex appeal with solid ring work and crackerjack comedic timing.  The lead up to the Forbidden Door match was a fever dream of a love triangle crossed with an ugly custody battle, replete with champagne celebrations, bisexual overtones, and envious stare-downs.  As May tried to stem her mentors’ jealousy, things came to a head after the three women defeated Outcasts Saraya, Anna Jay, and Harley Cameron on the go-home episode of Dynamite before Forbidden Door.  As Storm and May celebrated in the ring, Shirakawa grabbed a champagne bottle and snuck up behind Storm.  As Shirakawa swung her improvised weapon, Storm ducked, and the bottle shattered over May’s head, knocking her cold (and foreshadowing a more deliberate betrayal to come).  Storm and Shirakawa’s already contentious relationship deteriorated further with each blaming the other for the misfortune of their mutual mentee.  It was May who would prove to be the bigger woman, maintaining her neutrality and bringing Storm and Shirakawa together in a show of sportsmanship after Storm retained her World Championship at the pay-per-view.  Ten days later, with Shirakawa back in Japan, things would get complicated at the culmination of the Owen Hart Cup Tournament.

Since debuting the prior November, May had achieved a sufficient record to qualify for the annual memorial tournament.  Defeating former world champs Saraya and Hikaru Shida secured May a spot in the finals against Willow Nightingale in the main event of the July 10 episode of Dynamite.  It had also recently been announced that, in 2024, for the first time the winners of the Owen would be deemed the number one contenders for their respective World Titles at All In London in Wembley Stadium.  Would Timeless Toni Storm be able to tolerate her “understudy” earning a share of the spotlight on so grand a stage?  May would have her work cut out for her against a talent—and fan favourite—such as Nightingale, before she could even begin to worry about the whims of her eccentric proctor.  When May was able to best Nightingale (the previous year’s winner), she ran to the stage to retrieve her trophy, trailed by her mentor Storm.  Eight months of misdirection ensured no one watching—aside perhaps, from those with an intimate knowledge of Golden Age Hollywood—knew what was waiting for May at the top of that ramp: infamy.  For no sooner had May collected her Owen Hart foundation championship belt than she turned right around and blasted Storm in the face with it.  As a bloodied Storm wailed in anguish, May pummelled her repeatedly with her own signature high-heel.  After planting a sinister kiss on the champion, May raised her blood-smeared chin in triumph, to a chorus of “You Sick Fuck!” from the shocked capacity crowd in Calgary.

Legendary moments like this make wrestling the engaging, emotional art form that is.  May and Storm broke the internet that night, and they weren’t done yet.  They built on strides made by the likes of Becky Lynch, Britt Baker, and Thunder Rosa, who effectively used visions of brutality (on the fly in Lynch’s case as her injury was “a shoot”) to establish that women in wrestling are more than eye candy.  Toni Storm’s fellow Aussie Charli Evans, who regularly wrestles men, envisions a future with no division between the sexes.  Though major-market broadcasters in the US shy away from so-called intergender wrestling, Evans insists that it’s just wrestling and notions that women need to be protected in a simulated combat sport are rooted in mysogyny.  TNA, long an innovator in US women’s wrestling, has dabbled in gender irrelevance, with stars such as Jordynne Grace competing for, and winning, their traditionally male titles.  The success of trans athletes like Edith Surreal, Dark Sheik, Nyla Rose, and Gisele Shaw show wrestling for the inclusive community that it is, though not all fans or promotions are representative of that.  The potential of pro wrestling to connect disparate demographics is one of the shining attributes of this modern circus, but there is still progress to be made.  A common criticism of modern wrestling is the use of the women’s modifier when describing a championship: men have a World Championship, women have a Women’s World Championship.  Hangman Adam Page has expressed his desire to once again become the AEW Men’s World Champion, but the distinction has yet to gain much traction beyond the surprisingly progressive deranged cowboy.

What makes the trio of Storm, May, and Shirakawa so special is, in part, their ability to create compelling television within the confines of the old paradigm.  They prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a strong enough performance negates stereotypes.  Toni Storm has been one of the most anticipated returns for AEW fans after losing her championship at All In and wandering off into the streets of London (in full gear).  When Shirakawa returned stateside, ostensibly to celebrate May’s championship victory, few were surprised when May turned on her as well.  In this case, however, they refused to insult the viewers’ intelligence: Mina was ready for it.  In a formal gown and high heels, Shirakawa’s spin kick shattered the champagne bottle, once a hallmark of their friendship and sisterhood, that May now wielded as a betrayer’s cudgel.  Mina can be adorable, but surprising May in an interview on the following Dynamite, handing her a bottle of bubbly with the challenge  “do it to my face” is as hard as it gets.  After touring Japan and Mexico—where “Timeless” promos, unshackled by the restraints of US TV censorship, reached delightfully absurd levels of ribaldry—Toni Storm subverted expectations once again, turning back the clock on her “Timeless” persona, and appearing as a hungry young rookie in her AEW return, or seemingly, debut.  Toni Time is a flat circle.