She is TIMELESS Toni Storm!! (No longer...)

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Dec 12, 2024 0:48:58 GMT -5 Final Countdown Jones said:

I'd wait for like one word to come out of her mouth before writing off any real sense that she's boring and bad again now

This, like there's a real chance her character is much different now then the original Toni iteration, and also a strong chance Timeless is simply gone forever

There's a real chance they play this in classic wrestling fashion of multiple gimmick disorder lol

[bearned]

The ‘awww no she’s boring Toni again’ reaction when she’s literally been on TV about 60 seconds and not uttered a single word….sure is something.

[Mid-Carder]

She's literally not even done or said anything yet, how can we possibly know what it is?

[KME]

More than willing to give it a chance and don't think Toni will suddenly become boring or anything but it does feel a bit like turning The Rock back into Rocky Maivia. Like I don't think I'd seen anybody ever, outside of grifter, want her to go back to her old gimmick, it did kind of taint the moment for me. Interested to see where it goes but I'm hoping it's all a bit of a bluff because the Timeless gimmick is one of the best ever while her old gimmick was pretty universally...not even hated, I just don't think anybody thought anything about it, it wasn't really a gimmick. I trust them to do something good with it but the Statlander stuff and going from having her look like a killer as a heel with Stokely with her awesome theme to going back doing the Zoolander cosplay stuff as a white meat babyface is sticking in my mind a bit.

Do also think AEW need to get smarter with big returns to be honest, they wasted Jamie's on a pre show, are potentially giving Kenny's to NJPW, and gave Toni to a crowd that needed constant livening up from the wrestlers not to mention right at the very end of the show with no real time to soak it in, though I did appreciate the surprise factor because Thunder Rosa being out there made me think there was chance of Toni so fair play to them for that. And she did get get a great reaction all the same.

[daaave]

She is obviously not going back to her old gimmick. It's gonna be some amnesia gimmick where she's blanked out Timeless Toni and fprgotten what happened with Mariah. They'll string it along for a bit until she eventually remembers, morps into super saiyan Timeless Toni and goes for Mariah at the Australia show

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

I hope she hasn’t gone back to her original persona. I feel like after “Timeless”, any update has to keep within that parameter.

[Kalmia]

Even if she has gone back to the old gimmick properly she's grown so much as a performer and personality doing the Timeless gimmick that it won't be the same anyway.

This is really is a case for letting it play out.

[lucas_lee]

Timeless is one of those things that's a great gimmick. But in-ring it really hampered her style and she was having real stinkers. Maybe she can find the perfect balance between gimmick and good ring ability

[dreidemy]

What if she's stuck in a timeloop going through the OG Toni to Timeless Toni arc again until she wins back the title?

[neilc]

If they merge the Timeless gimmick with the OG Toni, it could be interesting: An 80s rock chick with a bit more edge. I think after showing her personality, she's not going to go back to "boring" unless the story calls for it.

[KME]

Dec 12, 2024 7:58:15 GMT -5 lucas_lee said:

Timeless is one of those things that's a great gimmick. But in-ring it really hampered her style and she was having real stinkers. Maybe she can find the perfect balance between gimmick and good ring ability

Don't think that's really been true for a while tbh, she seemed to find the balance with the match she had with AZM.

[lucas_lee]

Dec 12, 2024 9:13:04 GMT -5 KME said:

Dec 12, 2024 7:58:15 GMT -5 lucas_lee said:

Timeless is one of those things that's a great gimmick. But in-ring it really hampered her style and she was having real stinkers. Maybe she can find the perfect balance between gimmick and good ring ability

Don't think that's really been true for a while tbh, she seemed to find the balance with the match she had with AZM.

That was an outlier for me. I think she played into the gimmick too much and her ring work suffered for it. Just my opinion anyway.

[Mid-Carder]

Dec 12, 2024 9:30:50 GMT -5 lucas_lee said:

Dec 12, 2024 9:13:04 GMT -5 KME said:

Don't think that's really been true for a while tbh, she seemed to find the balance with the match she had with AZM.

That was an outlier for me. I think she played into the gimmick too much and her ring work suffered for it. Just my opinion anyway.

I agree, not that there haven't been great matches as Timeless, but her short first reign had way better matches. Ultimately though I think it was more important that the Timeless gimmick got over so it was worth the sacrifice.

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Dec 12, 2024 9:40:35 GMT -5 Mid-Carder said:

Dec 12, 2024 9:30:50 GMT -5 lucas_lee said:

That was an outlier for me. I think she played into the gimmick too much and her ring work suffered for it. Just my opinion anyway.

I agree, not that there haven't been great matches as Timeless, but her short first reign had way better matches. Ultimately though I think it was more important that the Timeless gimmick got over so it was worth the sacrifice.

Also being honest, Toni maybe needed a bit of a break from the more STARDOM style that her regular gimmick has, like those Hayter matches were amazing but I felt like both girls came out of them a bit worse for ware, so the slight downtick was probably to help reset her body I'd wager

[xxshoyuweeniexx]

I love how overwhelmed Toni was by her reaction. It warmed my heart to tell how happy she was that people missed her, coming from getting a pie in her face and almost quitting wrestling all together, to becoming the most beloved woman in AEW.

[Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story]

I read this online and thought it was interesting. Check Toni's reaction in her AEW debut video and compare to her reaction last night. They seem really, really similar to the point where it might have been purposeful. Instead of Timeless Toni Storm, is Toni now in a time loop that she needs to break before becoming Timeless again in time for Australia? Is she going to essentially retrace her steps? That could be really fun. Could lead to fun side interactions with Harley, Saraya, etc.

Her three personalities being Timeloop Toni Storm (rocker that thinks it's 2022), Timeless Toni Storm (golden age movie star) and Technicolor Toni Storm (60s/70s starlet) could be pretty cool.

[Renslayer]

Dec 11, 2024 22:09:14 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

i think the crowd response caught her by surprise. love when genuine moments and reactions like that shine through

[KME]

I like the idea of the amnesia or time loop type stuff, there's definitely a lot of interesting directions they can go with this, the only one that isn't interesting is if she just stays in the gimmick she's returned with but that surely has to be the least likely one.

Dec 12, 2024 9:30:50 GMT -5 lucas_lee said:

Dec 12, 2024 9:13:04 GMT -5 KME said:

Don't think that's really been true for a while tbh, she seemed to find the balance with the match she had with AZM.

That was an outlier for me. I think she played into the gimmick too much and her ring work suffered for it. Just my opinion anyway.

Can't really agree with that as I thought the matches she had with Thunder Rosa and Mariah were better but that may just be personal preference. I definitely think she leaned into the character too much early in the reign but personally felt she'd found a good balance after a while.

I don't think there was a big difference between the match quality in her not so good matches when she was Timeless and most of her Outcasts matches either though tbh, I don't know if Toni had a really standout match since the one with Hayter where she lost the title the first time before the Outcasts came about. I might be doing her a disservice there though.

[4real]

Dec 12, 2024 6:48:08 GMT -5 daaave said:

She is obviously not going back to her old gimmick. It's gonna be some amnesia gimmick where she's blanked out Timeless Toni and fprgotten what happened with Mariah. They'll string it along for a bit until she eventually remembers, morps into super saiyan Timeless Toni and goes for Mariah at the Australia show

That’s what I’m thinking too. She will be back as Titleless….sorry Timeless Toni Storm by the Australia show. And she will deny knowledge of who Mariah May is until just before then. To the point it drives Mariah insane.

[daaave]

Dec 12, 2024 11:59:49 GMT -5 4real said:

Dec 12, 2024 6:48:08 GMT -5 daaave said:

She is obviously not going back to her old gimmick. It's gonna be some amnesia gimmick where she's blanked out Timeless Toni and fprgotten what happened with Mariah. They'll string it along for a bit until she eventually remembers, morps into super saiyan Timeless Toni and goes for Mariah at the Australia show

That’s what I’m thinking too. She will be back as Titleless….sorry Timeless Toni Storm by the Australia show. And she will deny knowledge of who Mariah May is until just before then. To the point it drives Mariah insane.

Its goofy and it really shouldn't be the type of wrestling I'd enjoy but amnesia OG Toni blanking out Timeless stuff and trying to befriend Mariah. This could be the first feud ever where there are 2 turns involving same 2 people. Would be awesome