In a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Mariah May discussed several topics, including her decision to sign with the company.

“I was in STARDOM, I had just done the big pay-per-view, All Star Grand Queendom, and I did commentary on it, which actually got me a big buzz doing commentary. I had been wrestling there for maybe 4 or 5 months, and then AEW reached out and Tony reached out, they enjoyed what I was doing and they wanted me to come to AEW, which I was very surprised, I didn’t think I was ready to go to America, to be on TV, I just didn’t know where it came from.

I really wanted to go, but for me, going to STARDOM and Japan, that was something I wanted when I started training, and I felt like I was just scratching the surface of what I could do and how I could grow as a performer, especially in the ring. I said I really want to come, I can’t believe you guys want me, but I do wnat to finish off things I want to do in Japan, so I did the 5 Star Grand Prix, that was such an amazing experience and I learned so much and I improved so much, so now when I come to AEW, I have a lot more to offer than I did in May.

That was our original conversation, and we talked about ideas and I was really excited. I was in Japan, doing what I was doing, but AEW, it was a lot happening in my mind of I’m really excited about this next step, but I wanted to finish off this chapter I had in STARDOM, that was our first chat.

I didn’t tell anybody, I guarded that secret with my life. I saw it leak, I actually woke up in the middle of the night in Japan at the time it leaked, it was like 5am, I remember waking up, picking up my phone and I never had that many notifications in my life.

Some of the girls asked, Mariah, maybe AEW, ah no. Obviously, STARDOM is run by Rossy Ogawa, who I have a very good relationship with, I felt bad not telling him, but somebody, I’m not going to name names, but somebody in the staff does leak stuff about the westerners in particular about where they’re going to go, what they’re going to do. I would have a direct conversation with somebody, and they would put it on the dirtsheets. I shut down my merch store, and the exact conversation I had about it ended up on the dirtsheets.

I really wanted to be very honest with Rossy, because I have a lot of respect for him, but I couldn’t tell him until literally the day I was going to debut. I sent him a message and thanked him and let him know I was going to AEW. He would instantly be like, Mariah can’t come back next year, she’s going to AEW and then, it would all leak, so I had to really keep it a secret, I had to keep it to myself, and then towards the end, I let some of the girls know.”

The full interview is available at this link.