AEW’s Thekla: ‘I’m just a crazy girl from Austria who ended up here’
Thekla opened up about her AEW run thus far during a recent interview with VICE.
The 32-year-old from Vienna, Austria will challenge Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s World Championship at AEW All Out in a four-way match with Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander. She debuted for the company in June and has steadily moved up the card leading to her first title shot on Saturday.
Thekla said:
“I have confidence. When you let go and you still keep on working and being positive and showing up and showing out, that’s when opportunity comes knocking like a motherf**ker. I try to not get too excited about it either. I’m very excited about having that match, but I try not to think about, “Oh, I’m in the main event picture now, I made it!”
“I’m very excitable. I’ve been in places where I started to believe that wrestling is real. Almost like a method actor that just f**king loses herself in her role. That’s happened to me before in Japan, and it was very scary. So I just try to protect myself from reading comments online or people raving. I’m just me, I’m just a crazy girl from Austria who ended up here now. I’m just trying to have fun and bring that gold home.”
Earlier in the interview, Thekla discussed her alliance with Skye Blue and Julia Hart as The Triangle of Madness. Thekla says Blue and Hart were already clicking when she joined up with them, and she even teased some new members could be added to the group at some point.
“I think Madness has huge potential to be a big thing, and to actually mix some s**t up. I think for now we’re the triangle, which I think is cool. There’s still something to maybe changing up the shapes, if you know what I mean.”
Thekla also spoke about bringing an unorthodox style to AEW and trying to create something that fans haven’t seen yet. She continued:
“I feel like my style is very unorthodox, and it’s a mix of everything. I did a lot of underground s**t back in Europe; very technical stuff. And then in Japan, I just put the cherry on top. It’s not too hard [the transition from Japan to the U.S.]. It feels very natural in America. I feel like in AEW I can take all of these things that I’ve learned and create something that people haven’t seen yet. So, I think it’s working very well if you ask me.”
Thekla also discussed her time in Stardom, interacting with fans and more. Her full interview with VICE is available here.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.