Toni Storm vs. Mariah May: A Bloody Masterpiece at AEW Revolution

Sunday marked the end of the trilogy between Toni Storm and Mariah May at AEW Revolution live from Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.

Billed as the Hollywood Ending, Storm was defending the AEW Women’s Championship versus her former protégée in a falls count anywhere match.

To say this match was a ‘bloody’ good time would be disingenuous. It was a literal bloodbath — with Storm ultimately retaining the belt amid one of the goriest women’s wrestling matches in the history of the sport.

The storyline was beautifully crafted over a year between these two. It only made sense that Storm’s Hollywood persona would be showcased in front of a large crowd in LA. From the jump, these two mauled one another. It was mere minutes into the match when Storm powerbombed May off the stage and to the mat.

Eventually, the two got into the ring. Storm immediately ‘got color’ — which is wrestling lingo for blading herself to intentionally bleed. It appeared as if she may have cut herself a bit too deep. Blood was literally gushing out all over her face. There were times where the camera panned close on her face, and she would be muttering swear words to herself out of character — clearly realizing what she had done.

When mixed with her distinct black makeup around her eyes, Storm looked like the victim in a horror film. Eventually, May followed suit with the blading, and both were covered in blood. One of the most vicious aspects of the match included each wrestler grabbing a metal bucket used mostly for holding champagne bottles. Within the buckets were shards of glass. Each wrestler took a role of tape, wrapped their hands/wrists, stuck it into the shards, and immediately began swinging at each other. May endured the first punch to the face with glass destroying her face.

Eventually, the shards were scattered throughout the ring. Battling back, May broke a bottle between Storm’s legs, which looked immensely gruesome/painful when viewing the act.

Later on in the match, after multiple bumps onto the broken glass, Storm fished out the shoe (with the lengthy heel) that May had previously attacked her with. The fight led up the ramp back to the stage where it all began. With a table set up on stage, Storm lifted May up, executed a Storm Zero onto the table, and covered her lifeless body for the win.

The two literally did not move as they laid on the ground absolutely exhausted. It was the perfect ending to the story, and arguably the best match of the night for the promotion.

It’ll be fascinating to see what AEW does with these two moving forward. Hopefully, each will be involved in storylines as captivating as the one we saw over the last several months. It was arguably the best work AEW has done to date.