Unfortunately, fans won’t be able to see the promised match-up between NXT UK Women’s champion Toni Storm and AEW signee Bea Priestly.
The two female talents were originally set to face off in the main event on May 16
th for World of Stardom Championship, but the company announced that the bout had been cancelled due to circumstances beyond their control. Priestley will now defend her World of Stardom Championship against Hazuki. Storm now faces Kagetsu in singles competition.
Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported that the reasoning behind the bout being cancelled stems from WWE not wanting Storm to lose to AEW’s Bea Priestly (transcript courtesy of wrestlezone):
“She [Toni Storm] was going to get a shot at the red belt [World Of Stardom Championship], which Bea Priestley just won. Bea Priestley the title the other the day so they were setting up a match for the 16th I believe at Korakuen Hall and WWE found out and canceled it because Bea Priestley is an AEW wrestler and she was going to go over because she’s the champion there and Toni Storm wasn’t going to win the title. Think of this – this is not on WWE’s TV. This is not in the United States. This is on a Stardom show at Korakuen Hall, they didn’t want their woman. who’s not even a main roster woman, because that woman is with AEW.”
“Okay? I’m not even saying they’re wrong, I’m not even saying it’s petty cause if I was in WWE, given that Toni Storm is the UK Champion, I would probably say, ‘Hey I want to protect my championship I don’t want her losing, can we work -’, but I would say can we work out a draw? And then, Stardom would have the ability to make a decision. They did not give Stardom even the ability to work out a draw. It was like, ‘No, she can’t wrestle Bea…we can’t even work out a draw.’ So they had to change the card.”