WWE announces Toni Storm for Mae Young Classic
As expected, Toni Storm will be returning for this summer’s Mae Young Classic.
WWE announced via The Mirror today that Storm will be taking part in the tournament for the second straight year. She made it to the semifinals in 2017, losing to Kairi Sane.
Storm signed a United Kingdom contract with WWE earlier this year and appears set to be positioned as a top star in NXT UK’s women’s division. She won a triple threat match on night one of June’s Royal Albert Hall shows and advanced to unsuccessfully challenge for Shayna Baszler’s NXT Women’s Championship the next night.
“It’s just strange because I feel like my brain still hasn’t let it sink in yet that I am associated with WWE,” Storm told The Mirror. “I have strived for it for so long and dreamt of getting into WWE from being a kid and I have never let it go. It’s completely surreal, a lot of the time I kind of don’t even think i have got there.”
Storm was born in New Zealand, grew up in Australia, and has held titles in PROGRESS Wrestling and Stardom. She’s also the current wXw Women’s Champion.
The Mae Young Classic will be taped at Full Sail University on August 8 and 9 before the finals are held at WWE’s Evolution pay-per-view in Long Island, New York on October 28. Twenty of the 32 participants for the tournament have now been announced:
- Kaitlyn
- Rhea Ripley
- Io Shirai
- Nicole Matthews
- Jinny
- Kacy Catanzaro
- Deonna Purrazzo
- Tegan Nox (formerly known as Nixon Newell)
- Jessie Elaban
- Reina Gonzalez
- Taynara Conti (won a qualifying match at NXT TV tapings)
- Mia Yim
- Mercedes Martinez
- Kavita Devi
- Killer Kelly
- Zeuxis
- Isla Dawn
- Lacey Lane
- Karen Q
- Toni Storm