TONI Storm was a 10-year-old growing up on the Gold Coast when she first saw pro wrestling and fell in love with it.

Just 12 years later, she has been in the business for almost a decade, winning championships in every corner of the planet and featuring in a WWE women’s tournament.

But she’s not done. And she’s not going to be done until she reaches the pinnacle of professional wrestling.

That’s the sort of drive you must have inside you when you start wrestling against men at the age of 13.

13 years old, wrestling in front of about 5 people in a shed.. to 21 years old in a WWE ring 🎩😎🤘🏽 #ToniTime #WWE #MaeYoungClassic pic.twitter.com/6Hzcs0a7bC — Toni Storm トニー・ストーム (@tonistorm_) July 18, 2017

Storm is a New Zealand-born Aussie who calls Liverpool home but spent most of the last 12 months living in Japan. Not exactly simple. But, then, it never has been.

Finding a small wrestling company on the Gold Coast that allowed would-be wrestlers to start their training at the age of 12, Storm spent most of her early years wrestling men just out of necessity.

“For a long time I was the only girl and it kind of felt like I had these big brothers beating me up,” she told Foxsports.com.au.

“My first two years was mainly intergender (wrestling); I think I wrestled about three girls. There wasn’t much.”

Even in the scripted — don’t call it fake — world of wrestling, women fighting men has become uncommon just because of the image it projects, particularly in WWE. Ronda Rousey putting Triple H in an armbar at the most recent WrestleMania was the rare exception.

Yet Storm is a talented enough wrestler that she battled American veteran Timothy Thatcher in a match over that same weekend in New Orleans. It was a heck of a match; and one that took a lot out of her.

“(It was) one of the hardest matches of my entire life,” she said.

“He didn’t go easy on me, and he’s the nicest person I’ve ever met, he’s such a gentleman — he’ll take his hat off when he says hello to you.

“He’s the loveliest, sweetest person but he didn’t go easy on me whatsoever, which I appreciated.

“I still do them (intergender matches) occasionally, I love doing them, but now it’s mostly girls.”

Storm doesn’t often need to wrestle men because there are simply so many talented women on the scene.

Even before WWE moved away from bra and panties matches to the serious treatment their matches get now, women like Storm were on the independent scene showing what they can do.

That level of talent then allows Storm to travel constantly. While she theoretically lives near Liverpool, she says she spent at most six weeks in a row there over the last 12 months thanks to her touring schedule.

It’s fitting given the 80s rock star image she projects once she gets in the ring.

Australian pro wrestler Toni Storm at Melbourne City Wrestling's Progress v MCW event on April 20, 2018. Photo: Cory Lockwood Source: Supplied

“Last year I was in Japan in total for about seven months, on and off. And then I did a month in Australia and a bit of US stuff, so I’m never home,” she said.

“I love it there, I love being home and being in my own bed, but it’s rare. The longest I’m home would be six weeks but I’m still travelling to Germany and back (in that period).”

Japan is arguably the home of women’s wrestling. While ‘strong style’, realistic wrestling has been popular there for decades, it was in the 1980s when joshi puroresu really took off.

Hall of Fame performers like Bull Nakano, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota and the Crush Gals are still renowned today. Even now, some of the best female wrestlers in the world like WWE’s Asuka and Kairi Sane come from Japan.

It makes it a perfect place for foreigners to make their name — a ‘if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere’ sort of thing. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

“When I first started going to Japan it was very difficult for me,” Storm said.

“I was lucky enough, my first ever tour I was there with Viper (a Scottish wrestler), so she showed me around and made it a lot less nerve-racking for me. It was at first very hard to get my foot in the door.”

Toni Storm performs the Strong Zero piledriver (named after a Japanese alcoholic drink) on Kellyanne at Melbourne City Wrestling's Progress x MCW event on April 20, 2018. Photo: Digital Beard Source: Supplied

She clearly has gotten her foot in that door, as she’s now the top champion in Stardom.

But it’s not only difficult because of the actual wrestling, but because of the communication gap.

“I was lucky enough that I had learned a bit of Japanese prior, I did a bit in school, and I’ve been picking it up quite well. The communication definitely makes everything — not just wrestling — require a little bit more effort,” she said.

“Trying to translate the most basic things sometimes can be an all-day thing. Sometimes when the referee’s trying to communicate to you, they try their best and you try your best.

“What I like to do is when I’m on the same tour as the other gaijins (foreigners), if I can be ringside I do, because if anything goes wrong and you’re having trouble communicating to the ref, it’s always good if there’s another foreigner to help translate.

“Japan’s very big on seconds being there with the water and the cool spray anyway so I always make sure I’m there ringside and ask if they can be for me, because you don’t want to have a broken neck and next thing you’re trying to tell the ref what happened but you can’t.

“It’s hard, but at the same time, sometimes not knowing what’s going on is nicer.”

But all of this is in service of one goal for Storm; making it to the big leagues of WWE, featuring in last year’s Mae Young Classic tournament.

Toni Storm in a WWE promo photo for the 2017 Mae Young Classic tournament. Source: Supplied

“That was nerve-racking. I was out doing all the tapings, all of the interviews and getting ready for it for about 10 days in Orlando,” she said.

“It was just 10 days of nerves, I was terrified. It was so nerve-racking because it’s WWE, it’s the top place, it’s where I’ve always wanted to be. I nearly had a heart attack.”

She was given a golden opportunity in that event, making it to the semi-finals and losing to eventual winner Kairi Sane. Many expected Storm to be signed.

She would seem to be everything WWE could want. And yet she wasn’t picked up.

Of course, at 22, there are still many more opportunities to come — such as the newly-announced 2018 tournament, which Storm wants to be in (and win).

And she has the right attitude about the whole process.

“My goal from the very beginning has been WWE. It’s what I’ve wanted since I was 10,” she said.

“I know that I’ll get there because I’m putting my whole life into this. I have to go there because if I don’t... this is my only option. There’s no back-up.

“But I’m enjoying the journey. I get to do the coolest things ever. I get to go to Japan and main event Korakuen Hall. I get to go out there with my best friends who are like family to me. I get to travel to New Orleans, I get to come back here and see everyone that I started with, I get to go everywhere, and that’s the best.

“People don’t get that. I’m just so blessed.”