Tony Khan: "I saw something in Toni Storm that was completely different from any wrestler I’ve ever worked with"

Toni Storm is living the best stage of her professional career at All Elite Wrestling. Her "Timeless" character has catapulted her directly to the top of the company's women's division, which she has led for months as the AEW World Champion. A character, on the other hand, in which Tony Khan trusted from the very beginning.

A similar case is found in Swerve Strickland, who has found his place in All Elite Wrestling. His success has led him to become the company's first black world champion, as well as one of the highest-paid talents in the promotion. Thus, Storm and Strickland can be considered two of Khan's best signings in the first six years of AEW's history.

"Well, those are two great examples. I think Swerve Strickland was a tremendous young wrestler whom I had already seen on television. I thought he was excellent. And as I got to know him, I think he has been a phenomenal addition to AEW. He is a former world champion, former tag team champion. He has achieved a lot and still has a lot ahead in his career. Swerve Strickland was a great wrestler, and I was excited to bring him to AEW," Khan said in a recent interview for Dirt Sheet Radio.

"You also mentioned Timeless Toni Storm as someone who signed as a free agent here. Timeless Toni Storm is simply fantastic. She is now known as Timeless Toni Storm. She came with a great reputation as a worldwide phenomenon, this young and exciting wrestler who had been all over the world. And she built a great reputation. But I saw in Toni Storm something completely different from any wrestler I have worked with. She had a presence that reminded me more of Bette Davis or a character like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. But Toni is so young, so charming and powerful..."

"I thought there would be a great opportunity to tell stories, to collaborate with our partners at Turner Classic Movies. Tomorrow she will be on TBS for the Title Tuesday event, and we do wrestling shows every week on TBS and TNT. But this brought TCM into the equation. I love classic movies. I asked Toni Storm a while ago: 'Have you seen Sunset Boulevard or All About Eve, in particular?' And she hadn't seen them. She has evolved a lot since then. But I think all of this was always inside Toni Storm. She always had that presence, and she has unlocked it. I think it's phenomenal. I am really proud that she was able to find that within herself."

"I have been fortunate to have some good ideas over the years in wrestling, and I think one of them, undoubtedly, was introducing Toni Storm to classic cinema a couple of years ago. Who would have thought that would end up turning into what it is today? Timeless Toni Storm is one of the greatest wrestlers in AEW history. Toni Storm was a great signing as a free agent, and then Timeless Toni Storm took that to another level as one of our all-time best stars," Khan concluded.

After losing the AEW Women's World Championship at All Out 2025, the New Zealander will have the opportunity to regain it at WrestleDream when she faces Kris Statlander one-on-one. If she achieves her goal, she would add her fifth world title in the company, two more than Hikaru Shida, establishing a difficult achievement to surpass.