AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm recently made headlines when she declared herself an “AEW lifer” and stated that she had no intention of ever returning to WWE. On the latest episode of “The Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val,” former WWE and TNA Women’s Champion Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon) offered her veteran perspective on Storm’s comments, advising that in the wrestling business, it is never a good idea to burn a bridge.
“First of all, I love Toni Storm. I love her look, Marilyn,” Victoria began. “Super sweet when you see her at a meet and greet, very thankful. And yeah, I love her, but you never bury a company. You know, we all learn this saying that ‘maybe that’s not the place for me,’ but every company changes every year. You never know when you’re going to go back or when they’re going to demand Toni Storm to make a comeback to WWE.”
She continued, “You don’t want to bash any company. And I’ve learned that lesson. I’ve done that before and shame on me, but I think you get very like in your head going, ‘I need to say what I am feeling right now.’ But social media is not the platform to go if I’m angry at a moment. You know what? Let me think about it tomorrow if I feel the same way, you know because social media is so easy to go on a rampage and you’re going to go the next day, ‘I shouldn’t have said that’.”
The conversation then turned to the dangers of “cancel culture” in the social media age. Varon revealed that she was recently the target of an online campaign that resulted in her being canceled from a scheduled appearance.
“I got canceled on a October 19 show, and it was on Twitter, and a friend of mine called me and said, ‘Hey, I just want to see if you’re okay’,” she recalled. “And then she goes, ‘Oh, they canceled you for a certain reason.’ And I was like, ‘what?’ And I never experienced, this is just recent, to experience so much hate, and we got to rise above.”
Varon said she never commented on the situation publicly but did let WWE know what was happening. She also stated that she struggled to not respond to the online hate. “Everybody knows that it was very… I was struggling so hard not to say anything, but I’m the better person. I should not care about what somebody else thinks of me. They don’t know me,” she said.
She concluded by saying that it is “scary” how “loose lips on social media” can impact a person’s career and reputation, and that the anonymity of the internet allows people to say things they would never say in person.
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
