After finishing up her stint in Marigold in August of 2024, Giulia made her WWE debut at NXT No Mercy in September to confront the reigning NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez. After scoring singles victories over Chelsea Green and Wren Sinclair, as well as a trios win against Roxy and Fatal Influence alongside Jaida Parker and Lola Vice, the “Beautiful Madness” challenged The Prodigy for the NXT Women’s Title on October 1, but was unsuccessful due to outside interference from Cora Jade.
Afterward, Giulia formed a partnership with Stephanie Vaquer, with whom she teamed up on several occasions through the remainder of 2024. At NXT: Deadline in December, she won a Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge to earn another shot at the WWE NXT Women’s Title, which she finally captured from Perez at New Year’s Evil in January, 2025. Giulia retained the belt against Lola Vice and Wren Sinclair in a house show that same month, and at NXT Vengeance Day in February, she successfully defended it against Roxy, Cora Jade and Bayley in a four-way.
Unfortunately, at NXT Roadblock in March, the Japanese-Italian grappler lost the NXT Women’s Title to NXT Women’s North American Champion Stephanie Vaquer. After a brief injury-related hiatus, Giulia returned in April to save La Primera from Jordynne Grace and Jaida Parker, only to attack Stephanie herself, turning heel in the process. At Stand and Deliver 2025, she challenged for Vaquer’s WWE NXT Women’s Title in a four-way also involving Grace and Parker, but was unsuccessful at regaining the strap.
Giulia’s NXT run came to an end in May after getting beaten by Jordynne in a #1 contender’s match for the Women’s Championship. She made her main roster debut that same month on Monday Night RAW, unsuccessfully facing Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky in a tag bout alongside Roxanne Perez. Not long after, she was moved to Friday Night Smackdown, where she debuted by defeating Charlotte Flair and Zelina Vega in a triple-threat bout to qualify for that year’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, which she was unable to win in June.
On June 27, Giulia captured the WWE Women’s US Championship from Vega. She defended the belt on live TV and at house shows against the likes of Zelina, Michin, Bayley, Lyra Valkyria, and Roxanne Perez before dropping it to Chelsea Green in November. Giulia also formed an alliance with Kiana James around July, teaming with her in several tag matches, especially during her feud against the “Green Regime”.
In January this year, Giulia regained the Women’s US Title from Chelsea. Alongside James, she then also set her sights on the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, although they were unable to take the belts from Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky in February. Two months after failing to qualify for the Elimination Chamber, Giulia lost her US Championship to Tiffany Stratton in April. She was also unsuccessful at advancing past the first round of the 2026 Queen of the Ring tournament.
Soon afterward, the 32-year-old had a falling-out with Kiana James, whom she defeated in singles competition on Smackdown on June 26 and on Main Event on July 23. This Friday, Giulia was shockingly defeated by Lash Legend in a qualifying bout for the SummerSlam 2026 interim WWE Women’s Championship Ladder Match. The decision to have one of the promotion’s most promising and capable stars suffer a squash so soon after her US Championship loss has been met with strong disapproval from viewers.
Giulia’s loss on the Blue Brand this week and her main-roster booking overall have led to some debate over whether the former Stardom performer might be better served by jumping ship from WWE to AEW. Let us consider three potential reasons why such a move might be intriguing.
#1. Giulia fits AEW’s style of in-ring action better than WWE’s
While WWE is, without a doubt, a much more established wrestling organization than AEW, the Tony Khan-led company has cultivated a reputation for showcasing in-ring action of relatively higher quality. The promotion’s performers wrestle hard-hitting, physically demanding, and thoughtfully paced matches almost every week. Having a stacked roster helps in this regard, as talent can rest and recover between bouts, while their peers keep the show going with other matches and storylines in the meantime.
Giulia has proven herself to be a fierce and formidable competitor even on WWE’s programming. She has clearly done her best to adjust to the company’s distinct approaches to wrestling on NXT and on the main roster. However, even a cursory glance at her work should demonstrate that the Beautiful Madness would in all likelihood be a much better fit for AEW’s comparatively more intense in-ring product.
#2. AEW has a track record of pushing under-utilized former WWE stars
Since its foundation in 2019, AEW has platformed and pushed a number of ex-WWE names who have helped grow All Elite Wrestling into one of the biggest wrestling promotions in North America. Stars like Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Christian Cage, Swerve Strickland, Toni Storm, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, Adam Copeland, Mercedes Moné, Ricochet, The Hurt Syndicate, and Tommaso Ciampa have not only improved on their own stocks in AEW, but have also lent their experience and credibility to developing the company to its current state.
While Giulia has undoubtedly enjoyed an impressive degree of success in WWE, a huge number of fans seem to hold the opinion that the “Dangerous Queen” may not be able to advance her career there past the upper-mid-card level, considering her recent booking in the Triple H-led promotion. If she does sign with AEW at some point, Tony Khan might treat and present Giulia as a big-time asset and as a main event player in the company’s women’s division, given her powerful connection with audiences and her unique in-ring skill-set.
#3. Giulia could return to Stardom through AEW partnership
Between 2019 and 2024, Giulia had been signed with Tokyo-based Japanese promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom. The “Glorious Warrior” enjoyed a decorated run in the company during her near-five-year stint, having held the Artist of Stardom Championships alongside her Donna Del Mondo teammates Maika and Syuri, and later with Mai Sakurai and current AEW megastar Thekla. She also held the Goddess of Stardom Titles on one occasion alongside Syuri, together known as “High Level Madness” or ALK.
Giulia found success in Stardom even as a singles competitor, winning the Wonder of Stardom Championship once and the World of Stardom Championship. Through Stardom, she had also made appearances in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and even held the NJPW Strong Women’s Title, a belt she had won by defeating current AEW Women’s World Champion Willow Nightingale.
Signing with AEW would thus enable Giulia to once again lock horns with many of her past allies and rivals who are now All Elite, such as The Toxic Spider and The Babe with The Power, as well as names like former Women’s Champion Riho and Mina Shirakawa, whom she had battled in Japan. Moreover, because of AEW’s working partnership with the promotion, The Gladiator Of Glorias would be able to return to Stardom for occasional appearances, as Thekla did recently.
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Edited by Angana Roy