After several instances of suffering at the hands of Megan Bayne, AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm laid out the challenge herself following Bayne’s victory over Kris Statlander last week on DYNAMITE. For Bayne it’s a shot at the championship Toni regained just 40 days ago at GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA. For Storm it’s a chance for retribution after being laid low several times by the upstart contender who’s been on a tear through the Women’s Locker room since returning to the AEW stage at DYNAMITE: MAXIMUM CARNAGE for the GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA Casino Gauntlet Match. For both it’s an opportunity to gain an advantage before their DYNASTY 2025 championship clash in Philadelphia on April 6th!
As for their partners in this tag team battle, Penelope Ford has been by Megan Bayne’s side almost from the moment she returned to AEW. They were victorious together in tag team competition over Kris Statlander and Thunder Rosa three weeks ago in Sacramento, and Ford has been a constant at Bayne’s side in her matches over the last several weeks as well. With Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm there is quite the interesting dynamic, after all it was just one year ago at DYNASTY 2024 that “Timeless” successfully defeated “La Mera Mera” in a Women’s World Championship match, albeit via less than honorable means. That being said, the two women do have some history working together back in 2022 after Rosa beat Storm in their first title fight at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2022. They even took on the nickname ThunderStorm for their duo, as short-lived as it was, and who knows what their pairing could’ve been had it not been for the injuries that cut Rosa’s championship reign shortly, in turn leading to Toni’s first title victory at ALL OUT 2022. It’s quite fascinating how the careers of Rosa and Storm first became entwined three years ago and how those threads have pulled back together in the face of common enemies.
Clearly “Timeless” Toni Storm is a whole different animal than the woman who Rosa united with in the fall of 2022, however she’s not exactly the same as the champion Rosa fought a year ago in St. Louis. Storm went through hell and back over the last seven months with “The Woman from Hell” Mariah May, and that changed her, not to who she was before, but certainly something…more…than who she was before ALL IN: LONDON 2024. Is Toni in a position to take on a partner in AEW for the first time since June 26th of last year? Can Thunder Rosa and she be successful and send the champion to Philadelphia with the advantage, or will Bayne and Ford have the same success here they did last time they fought “La Mera Mera” and a tag team partner?