Toni Storm Likely Headed to AEW Women’s Tag Division After WrestleDream Loss

Toni Storm might be stepping away from AEW’s singles title scene—for now. After coming up short in her AEW Women’s World Title match against Kris Statlander at WrestleDream, there’s a strong belief she’s about to pivot into the tag division.

Dave Meltzer explained during Wrestling Observer Radio that AEW is likely pairing Storm with Mina Shirakawa, who also lost on the same show. The idea? Boost the credibility of the women’s tag belts by putting one of the company’s biggest stars in that role.

“It looked like they’re setting them up — Mina Shirakawa and Toni Storm — they beat both of them tonight, with the idea that now what we’ll do is we’ll make them the tag team champions. And making Toni Storm tag team champion, the deal is just like… it gives the tag team titles credibility because you have the biggest women’s star in the company as tag team champion. So I get that.”

But while the move makes sense from a booking standpoint, Meltzer questioned whether Statlander was the right choice for a long-term singles run over Toni—or even over someone like Willow Nightingale.

“I just… I don’t… I mean, look — Kris is going to work with Mercedes Moné, so it’s a big match. Title versus title. But if it was going to be someone for a long-term title reign, I would have picked Willow above Kris Statlander… I think Willow’s got way more charisma, probably wrestles better as well.”

Storm is arguably the most over woman in AEW’s women’s division, both from a character and crowd-response standpoint. Pairing her with Shirakawa could help the tag titles, but it also temporarily pushes her out of the top singles spotlight.

If this shift becomes permanent, AEW might be risking underusing one of its strongest characters—just to give the tag division a short-term jolt.

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.