Bea Priestley Recounts Toni Storm Running Initial Ideas Past Her For ‘Timeless’ Persona

Priestley and Saraya praise Storm.

In this current stage of Toni Storm’s career, she has brought forth the ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm persona and is in the midst of her second reign as AEW Women’s World Champion with said persona.

Praise was heaped onto Storm by Bea Priestley and Saraya on the newest episode of Rulebreakers With Saraya. Saraya shared that she remembers when she was in AEW with Storm, and Storm was nervous about being on the microphone. Priestley then recalled Storm running initial ideas for the ‘Timeless’ character past her.

Saraya: “First of all, are you f*cking proud of her, dude?”

Priestley: “She’s like the best thing on the planet.”

Saraya: “When I first got to AEW, she was too nervous to pick up a microphone. So we were doing The Outcasts stuff or whatever but, I remember she had this one line that she had to say and she kept going over and over and she’s like, ‘Oh f*ck. Can we keep going over it?’ It’s just one line, and I was like, ‘Toni, you got this, babe,’ and I had Ruby (Soho) who is amazing on the mic too. We got through that promo, she did amazing but I think the secret sauce is finding something that you really love and you’re really passionate about and to do something that kind of flips that switch for you, and so the whole Toni Storm, f*cking phenomenon that she created really f*cking capitulated her. She’s one of the best promos in the game now.”

Priestley: “Oh, 100 percent, and I was at her house when she was still thinking this idea. She pitched it to me and she was like, ‘Bea, you know, I’m essentially the modern-day Marilyn Monroe. Why don’t I just do it? Why don’t I just do this on TV?’ She’s like, ‘You know what? F*ck it. I’m just gonna do this and see what happens. I’ll be Timeless Toni Storm’ and like, it’s just her being silly and fun but that’s how she is all the time so, I’m so happy whenever I see her doing this silly, comedy stuff and I don’t think people realize, being actually funny and doing wrestling seriously, it’s so hard. Comedy wrestling is so difficult to get right and I’m so happy because she’s — obviously, everyone knows how talented she is as a wrestler in the ring, but I’m so happy that she’s found this because it’s like, she’s not just stuck in that one box of being a good wrestler. She’s also funny, she can do character, she can do promos, she can do just silly, little gimmicks. Whenever I’ll see her, she’ll be like, ‘Bea, I’m thinking about saying this next week’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, throw that in.’ She was like, ‘You know what? Maybe I will.’”

Further speaking about Storm, Priestley went on to state that it was Storm who recommended her to Rossy Ogawa, which got Priestley started with STARDOM.

“I think Toni (Storm) was actually the one who put me over because at that time, Rossy (Ogawa), who owned STARDOM at the time, he would ask the girls that he valued that were coming over regularly — be like, ‘Okay, who do you think I should bring over?’ Because he always knew the girls, they’d eventually get signed by somewhere… do STARDOM for a few years and then end up in WWE. That’s kind of how it was. So obviously, he knew Toni wouldn’t be far off and I think Piper (Niven) — or Kim — she was also in that so, I think he just asked Toni — be like, ‘Okay, who’s someone who’s got potential? Who do you recommend?’ And she was like, ‘Why don’t you give Bea a go?’ Sent him photos of me and then they reached out and that debut match I had with Starlight (Kid) and AZM, Rossy saw that and then he pulled me off. He was just like, ‘Do you wanna be here all the time?’ And I was like, ‘Yes!’”

Priestley is coming off a four-year run in WWE. She was released from the company in February 2025. Priestley is currently competing in STARDOM’s 5 Star Grand Prix tournament.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Rulebreakers With Saraya with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.