Mariah May—now known as Blake Monroe— signed with AEW in November 2023 and, despite having already made a name for herself in Stardom, was widely hailed as one of the first "homegrown" talents to have emerged from Tony Khan's company.
Monroe received widespread acclaim for her memorable feud with Toni Storm in 2024, and later won the AEW Women's Championship at All In before Storm managed to recapture the title. Their feud concluded at the AEW Revolution PPV in March, and that was it for her in AEW.
Monroe made her official WWE debut in June, when she signed with NXT. Keeping "The Glamour" gimmick, Monroe has gone from strength to strength in the developmental brand and is clearly destined for big things on WWE's main roster.
During a recent interview, the former AEW Women's World Champion praised WWE for elevating her character. "That's another amazing thing I've experienced here, it's such a collaboration," she enthused. "My character's shaped in different ways, and I knew coming to WWE, they were going to take what I did and make it bigger. That was such a huge appeal."
"I always loved that I was so glamorous, but my in-ring work was legit, and that comes from training in Japan. That comes from being a wrestling fan, something I talked with them about before I even came to Florida, was how can we make 'The Glamour' bigger and better?"
Praising NXT for allowing her to develop and experiment with her character before debuting on RAW or SmackDown, Monroe went on to express how much bigger the opportunities are for her by being a WWE Superstar instead of an AEW star.
"WWE is just huge. It's such a massive entertainment company and I think for me, as a women's wrestler, that was the big appeal with WWE. And I've wrestled all over the world and I've moved countries a few times and I always pride myself on how I can adapt, how I can pick up challenges and that's kind of what motivates me."
"There are so many women that are fantastic that I want to wrestle, I want to have storylines with and I think for me, it's just kind of focusing on what do I want to achieve at WWE and that's to tell these stories to make people feel something," Monroe concluded.
You can hear more from the former NXT Women's North American Champion in the player below.