Queen Aminata once returned home to Guinea believing she was finished with wrestling. Health problems had interrupted her career, and her father had passed away.
Then she looked through his phone.
Among its contents were photos of her wrestling in Japan. Finding them gave Aminata a reason to reconsider the career she was ready to leave behind. She shared the story with Renee Paquette in a February 2024 interview for AEW Close Up.
Why Queen Aminata Almost Walked Away
Aminata’s journey had taken her from Guinea through France to the United States. But as she worked toward a bigger opportunity in wrestling, her health forced her to stop.
In her interview with Paquette, she described needing knee surgery after a match with Skye Blue. After recovering, she experienced seizures, including three within 24 hours. Her father’s death followed during an already difficult period.
Returning home meant confronting that loss alongside uncertainty about her future.
The News She Wanted to Share
On February 16, 2024, Aminata defeated Anna Jay for her first win on AEW television. Tony Khan then publicly announced that she was All Elite.
The announcement was something Aminata had wanted to share with her father. Speaking on AEW Unrestricted the following month, she became emotional explaining that she had hoped to finally tell him she was signed.
“But, that didn’t happen so now I just have to keep it in my heart,” she said.
Her father never got the call she had imagined.
On October 28, 2026, more than two years after her All Elite announcement, Aminata defeated Persephone to win her first AEW title, the TBS Championship.
She wanted to show her father how far she could go. The photos he kept helped her keep going long enough to find out.
