Thekla Makes Honest Confession About Joining AEW Over WWE

Thekla has revealed why she made the choice to join AEW over WWE, as she makes a startling admission about dealing with management.

Thekla burst into AEW with a vengeance in the summer of 2025, after spending several years making a name for herself in Japan. Since joining Tony Khan’s company, the Toxic Spider has become the leader of her own faction and made history as she was on the winning side of the first-ever women’s Blood & Guts match.

Like many wrestling stars of today, she had a choice to make with both AEW and WWE calling for her signature. But it seems there was only ever one choice she was going to make.

Thekla Explains AEW Decision

Speaking on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Thekla explained that knowing how things work in WWE put her off from signing with the company, instead choosing to be part of AEW:

I had always told my friends back when AEW first started, I was like, ‘Hey guys, just so you know, this is where I’m going to be at some point. So just heads up.’ So then my cocky attitude kind of led me also to be like, you gotta follow up on that one.

When I first started watching WWE and learning about how things are done over there. I think generally, I didn’t love the idea of having to not do things my way. Everybody knows that you gotta drop your name and have to do whatever somebody tells you. I’m not great with authority.

When AEW started, I thought, okay, something new. I love a good underdog. And I just liked the melting pot of people who started there. It just had more of a punk feel and more of a fresh feel. I was like, that’s probably a good place for me at some point.

That decision has paid dividends, as on the February 11th edition of AEW Dynamite, Thekla defeated Kris Statlander to become the AEW Women’s World Champion for the very first time.