Toni Storm knows she won’t be the true queenpin of All Elite Wrestling until her Interim title is unified with Thunder Rosa’s AEW Women’s World Championship.
Storm won the ‘placeholder’ belt at September’s All Out pay-per-view when she defeated Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter and Hikaru Shida in a Fatal 4-way match. She’s been a fighting champion ever since, but she believes it’s “nonsense” that Thunder Rosa is still recognized as the real champion.
Storm has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy the injury that’s put Rosa out of action indefinitely. Rosa has defended herself, claiming she could barely walk and denying she has backstage heat with other women on the roster.
During a new interview with Chris Mueller for Bleacher Report, she’s now bemoaning the fact that she’s only an interim champion. Storm didn’t mince words when asked what’s next for her.
“I guess my first thing would be to beat Thunder Rosa and stop this interim nonsense,” said Storm. “That’s kind of what’s been bothering me. I think that’s been bothering a lot of people because she’s still calling herself the AEW women’s world champion and I’m the one here every week doing the work.”
– Toni Storm
Just Focus on Being the Best
We don’t have any indication that Rosa is gearing up for an in-ring return, so Storm will have to focus on what she can control, for now. Right now, she’s focused on being a strong champion, working hard and giving her all.
“I guess it’s about being a good champion, being a strong champion,” she said. “That’s what I’m up against every day. I’m working harder than I ever had in my entire career. The time is now. I look at every week as just an opportunity to prove myself. I love giving it my all and who knows where we go from here? But all I know is I’m gonna continue to work hard.”
Head over to Bleacher Report for more from this interview, including Toni Storm’s opinion on Saraya joining AEW.
Interim Titles in Wrestling
Storm is not the only AEW star to be saddled with a ‘less-than’ Interim championship. Jon Moxley was an Interim champion prior to steamrolling CM Punk to unify that championship earlier this summer.
Interim titles are commonplace in the UFC, when champions are injured for prolonged periods of time. There’s an argument to be made that a champion should have to forfeit their belt if they cannot defend it. Either way, it’s less-than-ideal when a new champion did not defeat the prior champion.
