Fantasy Booking 101 is a column on Pop Break dedicated to our writers wild wrestling imaginations.
Last week, All Elite Wrestling was dealt one of it’s biggest blows in a very long time — they would be without Timeless Toni Storm for a very long time. AEW wrote off The Timeless One on last week’s Dynamite by having her laid out in her dressing room.
According to Fightful, she was not written off due to injury. Now there’s been plenty of speculation as to why she’s off TV, but whatever the reason may be, we sincerely hope she’s good mentally, physically and emotionally, because that’s what matters the most.
AEW is now left with one its biggest creative quandaries since the Summer of 2022 when seemingly everyone got hurt including the newly crowned Men’s World Champion CM Punk and the Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa. That rash of injuries lead to interim champions, poor creative, and eventually lead to the pendulum of positive perception in the wrestling world swing from Jacksonville right back to New York (the WWE).
While, the loss of Toni Storm is not the death knell for the promotion’s momentum, it still is truly on par with the seismic loss of Punk at the height of his popularity in AEW. While she was not holding a belt at the time of departure, “Timeless” Toni Storm was undoubtedly one of the faces of All Elite Wrestling. Some could argue is the face of AEW. For years she has not delivered incredible in-ring performances, but she has beguiled audiences with her outlandish, intense, hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking interviews. She delivered countless classic backstage vignettes and promos. She has some of the best matches in the company — including the “Hollywood Ending” match at last year’s Revolution, which may be one of the best matches in the company. The word aura gets thrown around a little too freely these days, but Timeless Toni Storm had the aura, the vibe, the star power that very few in wrestling have today. Whether she was the champ or not, the women’s division of AEW flowed through her.
So what does AEW do now that one of their biggest stars will be gone from the promotion as Bryan Alvarez said “for a very long time?” That’s what this column is for. It’s dedicated to the fantasy booking of the AEW Women’s Division for the foreseeable future — what stars can built, what moves can be made, and the utilization of talent currently sitting at home.
Before, I start this column please note that are a lot of great women’s wrestling writers, podcasters and content creators who are great follows and most definitely have a better grasp on women’s wrestling than I do. Please go follow (amongst others) – Courtney Rice of Women’s Wrestling Talk, Lyric Swinton, Queen of the Ring, Kate from Fightful aka Miss Katefabe, and our good friend Ella Jay. (If there’s anyone you’d like us to mention, please let me know in the comments and they will be added to this list!).
1. Who Attacked Timeless Toni Storm? Tony Khan is a nerd and you know he’s watched “Who Shot Mr. Burns” on repeat and is going to employ a similar long-term story arc for this.
2. Mercedes Mone Become Even More Important:
3. Thekla = Money:
4. There’s a Lot of Women on the Bench:
5. Free Agency Moves:
6. The Athena Option:
7. One Word – Persephone:
