Tony Khan Weighs In On Toni Storm’s Success, Talks Integrating TCM Into Her Character

After moving to AEW from WWE, Toni Storm has become “Timeless” and one of the company’s most featured & popular wrestlers. AEW head Tony Khan told Dirt Sheet Radio that he saw big things in Toni all along, and had great praise for the four-time former AEW Women’s World Champion while talking about the process getting her to this point. You can check out the highlights below (per Fightful):

On Toni being different than any other wrestler he’s worked with: “…you mentioned Timeless Toni Storm as somebody that signed as a free agent here. Timeless Toni Storm is just so fantastic. She is known now as Timeless Toni Storm. She arrived with a great reputation as a worldwide phenomenon, Toni Storm, this really exciting young wrestler who’d been all over the world. And she built this great reputation. But I saw something in Toni Storm that was totally different than any wrestler I’ve worked with. And she had a presence that I felt was more like Bette Davis or a character like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. But Toni’s so young and just such a young, charming, powerful young lady.”

On the chance to integrate Turner Classic Movies into Toni’s story: “For me, I thought there would be a great opportunity to tell some stories, to work with our partners at Turner Classic Movies. You were on TBS tomorrow for Title Tuesday, and we do wrestling every week on TBS and TNT. But this brought TCM into the situation. I love old movies. I asked Toni Storm a long time ago, ‘have you ever seen Sunset Boulevard or All About Eve in particular’, and she had not. She really has come so far. But this is all things that were really inside of Toni Storm, I believe, the whole time. She had this presence and she’s unlocked it and I think it’s phenomenal. I’m really proud she’s been able to find it. I’ve had the fortune to have a few good ideas over the years in wrestling. I think one of them certainly was introducing Toni Storm to classic films like when I thought about that a couple of years ago and who would have thought it would take the turn it has and Timeless Toni Storm is one of the greatest wrestlers ever in AEW. Toni Storm is a great free agent signing, and then Timeless Toni Storm took it to a whole nother’ level as one of our best stars ever.”