WWE fans in the UK look set to welcome one of their own to the grand stage of wrestling’s biggest company.
Long gone are the days where Davey Boy Smith – The British Bulldog – flew the flag for UK shores in the glamourous and raucous world that was the WWF back in the 1980s and 1990s.
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These days there’s plenty wrestling star power from the UK and Ireland on show – Drew McIntyre was the first world champion from this part of the world, while Pete Dunne, Becky Lynch, Sheamus and Pretty Deadly are all among the names currently competing in WWE.
Their number looks set to bolstered by another Brit, too, with news that a former world champion is readying herself to make a splash on screens.
Mariah May will be known to many wrestling fans thanks to her successful spell in All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan’s rival grappling organisation.
The 26-year-old Londoner is highly thought as a former AEW Women’s Champion and the winner of the 2024 Owen Hart Cup.
She was already renowned for the waves made on wrestling’s independent scene and having worked as a fashion model, May even modelled merchandise for WWE aged 18 -and shot to stardom under Khan’s umbrella, signing in late 2023.
Nicknamed The Glamour, she won the world title there in a glorious homecoming at Wembley Stadium, knocking off Toni Storm in her home city at 2024’s All In London.
It was gold she went on to hold until she was defeated by Storm when the two met again at Grand Slam Australia in February, failing in a rematch at Revolution in March.
May hasn’t wrestled for the company since and recent speculation has linked her with a switch to WWE, AEW perhaps providing the biggest hint yet that this might be the case by removing her profile from their website’s roster page.
Though no statement has formally confirmed her departure, AEW nixing wrestler profiles is, historically, a surefire sign of a talent’s time there coming to an end.
Backing that up, Pro Wrestling Insider’s Mike Johnson commented “We can confirm that we’ve heard from WWE sources over the last week that she’s expected to start there in the near future.”
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Fightful, too, have confirmed that report and added that: “[WWE] immediately had interest in her when they learned she was available,” but equally confirmed that nothing at that time had been signed.
The rapid rise of May in the wrestling world isn’t without parallels – and British ones at that.
Former WWE icon and fellow Brit Paige recently left AEW, where she’d wrestled as Saraya and battled against May in multiple matches.
She, too, made a huge splash when she won the Divas title on her main roster debut in 2014 off the back of a successful independent career in the UK and a run in NXT.
In a landmark achievement May would go on to emulate, Saraya also won big at Wembley Stadium.
At All In London 2023, she was crowned AEW Women’s Champion after beating Storm, Britt Baker and Hikaru Shida in a fatal four-way match in front of a crowd of more than 70,000.
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Should May follow in the Norwich native’s footsteps and formally pen terms with WWE, she’ll be bringing a determinedness to graft.
“With WWE I actually modelled their shirts,” she said in 2021 interview.
“They sent me their merch to model, so I think WWE knew who I was when I was like 18.
“So, when I started training and stuff, I know they were watching me, and I just worked really, really hard, and I just – I sacrificed everything just to really put the time into wrestling.
“That pays off. And then, obviously, I was lucky enough to get a tryout, which was just the most amazing experience ever.”
Clearly undeterred by not being taken on by WWE after that 2019 try-out, her hard work appears to have finally paid off.
