In what can only be described as a shocking end of the year move, WWE has reportedly released Toni Storm. The SmackDown roster member worked WWE’s live event just last night in Washington. D.C.
The news of Storm’s release was broken on Wednesday afternoon by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp via Twitter. Storm is a former NXT UK Women’s Champion and also a Mae Young Classic winner (2018).
Details on Storm’s release are scarce at the moment. Sapp confirmed that he had received confirmation from WWE on the release but was not yet aware of why the move was made. He later went on to mention that the memo that went out across the company concerning Storm’s release did not mention budget cuts, as has been the case with most of WWE’s recent releases. There’s a belief internally that she asked for her release, though that is still in the process of being confirmed.
Storm became a sensation from 2015-2018 while part of PROGRESS Wrestling. She competed in the 2017 Mae Young Classic tournament and was then signed by the company in May 2018. She went on to win the 2018 Mae Young Classic that fall, defeating Io Shirai at the WWE Evolution PPV event.
Storm was part of the NXT UK brand from 2018-2020, holding that brand’s women’s title for 231 days. She lost it to Kay Lee Ray at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff in August 2019.
After an eight month hiatus, Storm started working the regular NXT brand in the fall of 2020 consistently. She then moved to the SmackDown roster this past summer. Storm was part of the Queen’s Crown tournament in October, losing to Zelina Vega. She was also part of Team SmackDown at last month’s Survivor Series PPV event.
Storm wrestled on Tuesday night at WWE’s live event in Washington, D.C. in a triple threat match against Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks. She worked the same match the previous night at the WWE live event in Orlando. Interestingly, Storm had recently spoken about lack of opportunities on the WWE main roster.
The wrestling world reacted appropriately to Storm’s release, including Britt Baker evidently calling for a match with Storm.
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