Mariah May signed for AEW after a 5am message from Tony Khan made all her sacrifices worth.
The English star signed with the company last year, and immediately joined forces with Toni Storm. She is an admitted fan of Storm, and the pair became fast friends on and off-screen.
Their partnership, and eventually rivalry, was one of the highlights of AEW throughout 2023. This has led to a clash at Wembley Stadium at AEW All In between Storm and May, in arguably the biggest women’s match in AEW history.
However, this would not have happened if Mariah May hadn’t toiled away in Britain and Japan, earning her spot in AEW. Here, she learnt a great number of things, including how to live poor and respect the professional wrestling business.
Mariah May spoke with Denise Salcedo recently, and talked about her journey to joining AEW. The British star revealed that she used YouTube and Twitch to grow her brand, while also wrestling on the UK indie scene.
This gave her the chance to move to Japan, and wrestle alongside Mina Shirakawa in Japan. Here she became a fantastic wrestler and character, earning interest from Tony Khan and AEW.
“I definitely didn’t see it coming. I was on the British Independence scene for quite a long time, working so hard to get opportunities. It’s not the biggest scene, so I did YouTube, Twitch, and other things to make a name for myself and get out there. It was becoming very difficult. I really wanted to go to Japan, to Stardom, and start again as a rookie wrestler, learning how to wrestle again. Coming out of COVID made travelling very difficult, with different rules and regulations in every country.”
“Finally, I got the opportunity to go. In my first week, I said I would love to stay longer than three months, which was my original timeframe. They said I could stay as long as I wanted, so I decided to stay forever. My visa was for a year, and they said I could stay until December. It was a great journey for me both personally and professionally, being on my own, starting again, learning how to wrestle, connecting with different people, and learning a new culture.”
Mariah May: Tony Khan Messaged Me At 5am
Mariah May continued. She explained that just months into her spell in Japan, she was texted by Tony Khan about joining AEW.
She revealed that it was her dream to move to America to become a wrestler. As she was feeling lonely in Japan, it was the pefect opportunity. She immediately caller her family to tell them the good news, and finally felt like she “made it” as a professional wrestler.
“About three or four months in, I got a message out of nowhere saying Tony Khan was interested in signing me. I remember waking up at 5:00 am because I had a show that day, feeling quite lonely in Japan, doubting myself as happens when you’re chasing a dream with its highs and lows. I was a bit down, but then I got this call and couldn’t believe it. I went to the show and couldn’t say anything, but I was just there thinking, ‘What?'”
“My dream as a kid was always to move to America and wrestle on TV, so this opportunity was huge. As things progressed, I would get off the phone feeling like something bad might happen until I officially signed. When it was almost done, I called my family, and telling them felt like I had made it. I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, but I knew it would happen because I wasn’t going to stop until it did.”
