During a recent interview with Inside the Ropes, Toni Storm commented on the original plans for her official WWE NXT debut, her hectic 2020, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On her hectic 2020: “Oh, last year was insane. I mean, not just for me but for everyone. But for me, I was meant to move to America end of March and then a week before I was set to go, Trump came up and cut all travel restrictions. I mean, fair enough, but just terrible timing for me … Luckily, I could stay in my apartment and I waited it out a little longer. Then in May, WWE were like, ‘Yeah, you’re good to go, green light.’ So I packed up all my stuff, got rid of my apartment, went all the way to London to get on the flight. And then there was issues with border control and I couldn’t get in. So, long story short, I got stuck in London for about three or four months. So, it’s been a crazy journey just getting here. It’s been insane. But I’m here now.”
On being supposed to debut in NXT sooner: “Yeah, I think I was meant to be there quite a few months sooner, but obviously I got stuck and obviously the UK… It’s still in a terrible state now, pandemic wise, but it was terrible back then so we didn’t know what was happening with NXT UK either. I was just kind of in between, like, ‘ I don’t know.’ I was living each day not knowing what was going to happen, when I was going to leave, so it was crazy time. But yeah, it took me until October.”
On her debut in NXT: “Yeah, it was crazy because I had spent so long with my prime focus being, ‘Just getting to America, get to America, set up your life over there, stop living on people’s couches.’ You know? That was that was the forefront of my mind and then I got there and was like, ‘Oh, my God, I haven’t wrestled in so long. And I was kind of I was nervous going into it because it had been so long since I had trained, since I had been in the ring and done a march. Luckily, it all came back to me but it’s been crazy. Since I started, when I was 13, I’ve never had that much time off – since I started. So it was very different and kind of foreign for me to be like kind of rusty. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, here I am – at it again. Like, but yeah, I finally dusted off the cobwebs and I’m feeling a lot better now, which is perfect timing for TakeOver!”
On her heel turn: “To be honest, I feel like I’m more myself than I ever have been. I feel a lot better just not caring and just being me. It’s a lot easier to get people to dislike you than like you. It’s a lot less effort, which is good because it just helps with my focus going forward and I think it’s going to be more entertaining for everyone, if anything.”
