Toni Storm has had an amazing year so far in 2017, and it’s only continuing to stockpile, as she won the annual Femme Fatales tournament in Germany’s wXw promotion tonight, defeating fellow Mae Young Classic competitor Viper (Piper Niven) in the finals.
https://twitter.com/tonistorm_/status/916753173947277312
Femme Fatales is an annual tournament held in wXw that pits six of Europe’s top women wrestlers in a single elimination tournament to crown its annual champion. This year’s field also featured UK wrestlers Jinny and Laura Di Matteo and Germany’s Wesna, Melanie Gray and Killer Kelly. Storm defeated her PROGRESS rival Jinny in the first round, then Germany’s Wesna in the second round, before defeating Viper in the finals. Last year’s inaugural Femme Fatales winner was another Mae Young Classic competitor, Germany’s own “Alpha Female” Jazzy Gabert.
This win marks the fourth major tournament win for Storm this year – alongside Stardom‘s Cinderella elimination tournament in April, PROGRESS’ Natural Progressions Series IV in May and Stardom’s 5STAR Grand Prix tournament (similar to NJPW‘s G1 Climax) just last month. She also made the Final Four in WWE’s Mae Young Classic tournament this summer before losing to eventual winner Kairi Sane in one of the tournaments stand out matches. In June she also competed in British Empire Wrestling (BEW)‘s International Grand Prix tournament, but was a surprise knockout in the first round, losing her shot at another tournament victory as well as her BEW Women’s Championship, which he’d held 181 days going in.
But although she lost her BEW title, she picked up two even bigger singles titles this year as well. By winning the Natural Progression Series IV in PROGRESS (defeating fellow wXw Femme Fatales competitors Jinny and Laura Di Matteo), Toni Storm was crowned the inaugural PROGRESS Women’s Champion, a title she’s now held 133 days. And just two weeks ago, she capped off a stellar year in Japan with defeating World of Stardom Champion Mayu Iwatani for the top single belt in Stardom, albeit under some tragic circumstances. She is also still the SWA Undisputed World Women’s Champion as well, a title she’s held for over 440 days.
Throughout the year, she’s had memorable moments beyond stats and figures. She’s successfully defended her PROGRESS Women’s title against some worthy challengers from around the world, such as Candice LeRae, Kay Lee Ray, and Black Dahlia, faced SHINE Champion LuFisto in a title match at the WWN SuperShow: EVOLVE vs. PROGRESS in Orlando over WrestleMania weekend (coming up just a bit short), and wrestled for the WWE over WrestleMania weekend, defeating Jinny at the PROGRESS Showcase at this year’s WrestleMania AXXESS.
With so many of last year’s top indie women now under WWE contract, such as Kairi Hojo (Kairi Sane), Princess Kimber Lee (Abbey Laith) and Heidi Lovelace (Ruby Riot) to name a few, the field opened up a lot in 2017 for others to step up and claim those spots in the world’s viewfinder. So far, this year has been the year of Toni Storm and it’s no surprise that reports are already bubbling in that WWE is keen to sign Storm to a UK contract to help be a part of their UK programming once it gets off the ground in the coming months.
