Following her recent shock victory over Mercedes Mone for the inaugural NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship, AEW star Willow Nightingale has opened up on her admiration for her opponent.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Nightingale recalled Mone’s inspiring influence on her own career during her time as an aspiring pro wrestler.
Nightingale revealed:
“She is extremely accomplished. I’m a fan of hers and I think respect goes into what we do in wrestling through and through.
“I remember sitting on the couch and watching when she made her main roster debut on Raw. I went through the house screaming and my mom was like, ‘What’s going on?’
“I was very excited because I had gone to school in Boston and she was a Boston girl. She’s a woman of color.
“It really just seemed like everything she did, she truly believed in herself and that is something that inspired me.
“Even before AEW or Ring of Honor, like if this company doesn’t see this power in me, I see the star power in myself.
“She was somebody I could kind of turn to and be like, that is the attitude that I need. She was in so many landmark matches.
“So especially going into this, I knew the possibility of facing her was there and I wanted to do her proud as much as I did myself and hopefully this is something that can earn respect from her and the New Japan fan base.”
Despite earning the victory and becoming the first ever NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion, original plans saw Mone defeating Nightingale according to PWInsider.
However, due to Mone suffering a broken ankle during the match an audible was called an Nightingale picked up the victory.
The controversial nature of her win has seen Nightingale that much more determined to prove naysayers wrong and would even open the door for a definitive rematch with Mone upon her recovery from injury.
To read Nightingale’s full comments on the matter follow this link here.
The card for the AEW Double Or Nothing event on Sunday, May 28 is as follows:
AEW World Championship – MJF (c) vs. Darby Allin vs. Jack Perry vs. Sammy Guevara
TNT Championship Ladder Match – Wardlow (c) vs. Christian Cage
AEW Women’s World Championship – Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm
AEW World Tag Team Championship (Special Guest Referee Mark Briscoe) – FTR (c) vs. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett
Anarchy in the Arena – Adam Page, Kenny Omega & Young Bucks vs. Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta
Unsanctioned Match (Special Enforcer Sabu) – Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho
Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn & Ethan Page vs. HOOK, Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy
International Championship Blackjack Battle Royal – Orange Cassidy (c) vs. 20 others
TBS Championship – Jade Cargill (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie
Transcript courtesy of Wrestlingnews.co
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