Number one contender to the AEW Women’s World Championship Mariah May has reacted to criticism of her kissing Mina Shirakawa on AEW television.

In the build to Shirakawa’s AEW Women’s World Championship match with Toni Storm, Mariah May was caught in the middle due to having ties to both women through her career.

May’s friendship with Shirakawa would be on full display when the pair locked lips on AEW TV on several occasions.

During an appearance on the Wrestling with Freddie podcast, discussed this and hit back at criticism from sections of the audience:

“It was not pitched. We just did it. Mina and I are extremely close. We’ve always been very close in Stardom. We just did it.

“The next time around, they were like, ‘Hey, can you guys stop kissing?’ I think there’s a bit of an archaic view on it and people seem to think we have no autonomy over our bodies. It’s my choice who I kiss. It’s my choice what I do. If I’m not comfortable doing something, I would always say so.

“I remember seeing, you know, the usual suspects, being like, ‘Oh my God. This is setting women’s wrestling back so much.’

“It’s like, first of all, no one made us do it. We chose to do it. That’s just how we show affection to each other and we always have in our friendship. Like I said, if I don’t want to do something, I won’t, but myself, Mina, and Toni are three extremely decorated women’s wrestlers who, off our own backs, have become very successful all over the world, and so to try and tell us we’re setting women’s wrestling back was pretty crazy to me.

“The numbers don’t lie. I think myself, Toni, and Mina got the best-rated segments for about eight weeks in a row, and as we should.”

Unfortunately, Storm and May are no longer the best of friends with AEW All In seeing The Glamour challenging for the AEW Women’s World Championship.

Shirakawa has reacted to May betraying Storm on the July 10 episode of AEW Dynamite, revealing she ‘can’t sort out [her] feelings.’

AEW recently released a video charting the arrival of Mariah May to the betrayal of Toni Storm which can be seen below this news story.

 AEW