AEW Women's World Champion Thekla is an Artist, a Control Freak and Really Good at Pro Wrestling (Exclusive)

"Eight months is very quick. I came into the company and just did my thing."

That's the AEW Women's World Champion being modest. Did her thing? I'll say. When Thekla made her AEW debut in May of 2025, she did so with an artistic vision for her character, experience from around the world, and thinking about herself. She now holds the biggest prize that AEW has to offer.

In an exclusive interview with The Takedown on SI, The Toxic Spider opened up her web and revealed how she was able to make such a profound impact on her company in such a short amount of time. The "how" isn't just one thing, but a collection of choices that start with being confident in who she is.

"I wasn't thinking too much about other people," Thekla said regarding being competitive with the AEW women's roster upon making her company debut. "I tried not to, because if I fall into that hole of trying to compare myself to others who have completely different sets of talents, it's so easy to get insecure.

"It's important to remind myself that I've been around. I've played in punk bands. I've went to art school. I got a degree. I've lived in six countries. I speak almost five languages. It's like, I'm good at stuff. I got my own personality going and I can do stuff in the ring that nobody else can do. I just tried to focus on how good I am, because I'm really good."

Thekla made a seamless transition to AEW television when she made her debut after a strong run for the Stardom promotion in Japan. AEW and Stardom are both wrestling companies, but different in tone, size, and scope. Thekla thrived in the AEW environment because she could actually look like a star.

"It was always very difficult to really verbalize my vision of how I do an entrance," Thekla said of working in Japan. "How I want my music, the lights, the fire, you know, the presentation. They're great at everything, but they don't just have that budget.

"Being able to verbalize that here in AEW and have so many talented people who make creative things happen is phenomenal. I really appreciate it and it's huge and important. When you want to look like a star, you got to look like a star."

Being a control freak is part of Thekla's success in pro wrestling

All members of the Triangle of Madness (Thekla, Julia Hart, and Skye Blue) will participate in the 2025 CMLL Women's Grand Prix. | All Elite Wrestling

Well, the tone of AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision shifts the minute she walks out onto the stage. Thekla is an artist and it's her vision she's executing when she wrestles.

"I'm a massive control freak," Thekla said. "It's like, these are the colors. This is my logo. I design it. I was working with somebody and I was telling him it's gonna be a mix of a spider with a hazard sign, right? So, it's all me. I'm great on ideas and then connecting with people and telling them this is exactly what I want.

"I get hyped when I go out and I think the fans can really feel this. There's those two things. The person and the music really make sense together. Those are small artistic details that I'm crazy about."

Thekla was protective of the tricks of her trade, but let fans in regarding how she herself compliments the character presentation she works so hard to visualize. The answer? Experience, reps, and confidence.

"I know what I look like on stage," Thekla said. "I come from an artist family. I went to art school. I know perspective. I know how to make something look good and I practice that stuff over and over and over again. I hear my music. I know exactly when it's the climax of the song. This is how fast I have walk here, this is where I stop, and this is what I look like. I was a drama kid. I was an art kid. I just take stuff from all these different things. I was probably born for this."

Art is an important constant in Thekla's life in and out of the ring

When Thekla isn't winning championships and beating up the AEW women's roster, she maintains her art. She paints. Later this month, she'll not only be a part of an art seminar at the Game Time art festival, but she'll have a full exhibit of her work up for fans to see at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami on March 19 and March 20.

"This is going to be super interesting," Thekla said of the festival. "I hope a lot of people are going to come out. It's going to be athletes. It's going to be artists and it's going to be a lot of talk about the rare point where art and sports meet. I'm super excited because it's going to be an artist talk. I'm going to try to talk about what it's like as an athlete to also be an artist ... I've talked at university, I've done some pep talks type of stuff, but this type of talk is going to be interesting and new. It's going to be a lot of different people talking about something that is rarely discussed."

Thekla is meticulious about her art, her wrestling, her entrance, and presence. Does the same hold true for her future? Is Thekla's future vision crystal clear? That is something different all together.

"It's about enjoying the ride," Thekla said of her career vision. "Letting go has just brought me to higher heights than I could have ever imagined. I did not see myself in the title picture like this and already I had my first title shot last year in the summertime. I was only three or four months in at the time. I was like, 'oh, okay, we're already here.'

"So, where do I want to go? Yeah, world domination. Obviously, that's the ultimate goal. I've got a very clear, creative vision. I think I live a way of life that I want to share with other people, with the fans, you know. I'm gonna share everything that's up in here (in her head)."

Thekla's next step in her quest for world domination will continue this weekend at the AEW Revolution PPV. Thekla has been embroiled in a long feud with Kris Statlander over the AEW Women's World Championship. They'll tangle again on the show with the belt on the line, but a different stipulation in place to keep things interesting.

AEW Revolution airs live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15. Other announced matches for the show include MJF vs. Adam Page for the AEW Men's World Championship in a Texas Death Match, FTR vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW Men's World Tag Team Championships, and Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the AEW Continental Championship.