Out World champ Toni Storm’s distinctly sapphic reversal goes viral
Toni Storm and Mercedes Moné delivered a title match that lived up to the hype. Storm continues to be a powerful out presence in AEW. The post Out World champ Toni Storm’s distinctly sapphic reversal goes viral appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
All Elite Wrestling took over the home of the Texas Rangers, Globe Life Field, for its “All In” pay-per-view, the promotion’s biggest event of the year, on Saturday. While every match on the roughly seven-hour card lived up to its billing, one in particular — featuring “Timeless” Billed as one-third of a three-match main event, AEW Women’s World champion “Timeless” Toni Storm — spoke to the queers in a way that burst through the wrestling bubble.
Billed as one-third of a three-match main event, AEW Women’s World champion Toni Storm put her title on the line against AEW TBS champion Mercedes Moné in the most-hyped women’s match in company history since Storm’s very sapphic rivalry with Mariah May concluded earlier this year.
Storm, who came out as bisexual in 2021, hasn’t shied away from her queerness during her time in AEW, but the transition to the “Timeless” character in the last two years saw references to that part of her identity become more frequent, explicit and humorous.
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She even invoked the old adage about “the two things that come from Texas” in the build to Saturday’s match, saying she was “at least one of them.”
The match itself met the combustible tone set between the two over the last month, but Storm’s tongue-in-cheek nature and aptness to mix in her queerness gave the over 25,000 fans in attendance and the wider internet a number of distinctly sapphic moments during the contest.
While Storm spanked Moné and called her a “bad girl,” and the two exchanged kisses, it was a very unique reversal by Storm that caught the internet’s eye the most.
Late in the match, Storm reversed a tombstone piledriver attempt by Moné and proceeded to, shall we say, make a meal of “The CEO.”
Storm would win the match and end Moné’s undefeated streak in AEW after a Storm Zero piledriver from the middle rope, complete with out AEW referee Aubrey Edwards making the three-count, but the “Timeless” one’s queer expression carried over into the post-show press conference, where she appeared in character.
“Mercedes Moné, thank you for making me a better wrestler and a better woman, and for keeping your lips clean, all four of them. You taste great,” Storm said before carrying AEW on-screen personality Renee Paquette out of the room while saying “I must have you.”
While mostly done through the lens of humor, Storm’s continual highlighting of her queerness is undoubtedly one of the most endearing qualities of her character and engendered a large LGBTQ audience as she ascended to being one of the top draws in AEW in recent years.
There is a freedom within her that speaks to people, and queer expression sits at its nucleus.
Storm wasn’t the only out LGBTQ presence on the show, though. Elsewhere on the card, Anthony Bowens, fresh off a great throwback social media post turned in an impressive showing in the Men’s Casino Gauntlet match, “Speedball” Mike Bailey challenged for the AEW World Tag Team titles and Trish Adora accompanied Shane Taylor Promotions to the ring.
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The post Out World champ Toni Storm’s distinctly sapphic reversal goes viral appeared first on Outsports.
