Willow Nightingale Talks Falling in Love with Wrestling, Mercedes Moné Match, More

Willow Nightingale is known as one of the most positive and bubbly personalities in professional wrestling, but she has also been one of the most successful over the past year.

Her recent accomplishments from the past 12 months alone include defeating Mercedes Moné to become the first-ever NJPW Strong women's champion, winning the Owen Hart Cup and defeating Julia Hart to become the TBS champion.

The 30-year-old New Yorker has been heavily featured on both Ring of Honor and All Elite Wrestling programming, but her biggest test to date may be her upcoming rematch against The CEO at Double or Nothing on May 26.

We had a chance to speak to Nightingale about her upcoming match with Moné, some of her biggest moments, working with Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway, and much more.

Wanting to Become a Pro Wrestler

For many professional wrestlers, their passion for the business grew out of their love for it as children, and it was no different for the TBS champion.

"I used to share a bunk bed with my older sister and one night I was watching wrestling, and they did a wrestling move into all of the tables at the side of the stage and I was like 'Whoa! That's so exciting! That's so cool,'" Willow said.

"I was in my top bunk and I ran down into my parents' room and I was like 'mom and dad, this is so cool! I'm gonna be a wrestler one day.' And, of course, kids say that and those things happen or they don't."

Nightingale had a period when wrestling faded into the background, but once she rediscovered her passion, it was full steam ahead.

"Wrestling kind of got away from me a little bit when I was in high school," she said. "When I went to college, it kept reappearing in my life and I was reminded, like, 'Oh my god, yes! This is the thing I love.' When college didn't work out for me, I gave it a shot and here we are some nine years later and it's really working out for me."

The Most Successful Year of Her Career

Over the past year, Nightingale has seen her career blossom as she has added several accolades to her resume.

On May 21 at NJPW Resurgence, she became the first NJPW Strong women's champion by defeating Moné, but that was just the start. She has also won the Owen Hart Cup and TBS Championship, making the past year the most fruitful of her career thus far.

"The biggest thing from the beginning of this run that I've been on the past year is the amount of confidence I've gained throughout it," Nightingale said. "Winning the [NJPW Strong] Women's Championship was a mini tournament and the very first match I was against Momo Kohgo that same night.

"And then I find out who I'm going to be facing in the finals is Mercedes Moné. Mind blown, this crazy nerve-wracking moment where I had to ask myself 'Hey, am I worthy of this match?' Ultimately I win and instantly my stock raises because of that. People are paying attention, I have all these extra eyes on me, and that is something that can break you if you're not ready for that spotlight.

"But I think that prepared me for what was ahead because not long after that, I was in the Owen Hart Tournament. So every single thing is more and more confidence within myself."

Even though 2023 and 2024 have featured some big wins for her, The Babe With the Power also sees her losses as being just as important because of the historical significance of being the first time two women worked the main event of an ROH pay-per-view.

"I also had the Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor match against Athena," she said. "So even though I walked out of that without the championship, that was still a really big moment in my career and a match that means a lot to me. So I feel like I learned just as much in defeat in that one as I did in my previous wins."

Arguably, winning the TBS Championship is her biggest accomplishment in AEW, and what made the moment even more special was having members of her family in attendance to share the glory.

"I had my mother, my father and my little sister there," she said. "If there was anyone ever that I could talk to about wrestling, it would be ny dad because nobody else in my family was really a fan. But my dad would watch, and he had his favorites and things he was invested in.

"When I started wrestling, neither of them were particularly happy. They would always say 'Who wants their little princess to get beat up?' But I think they both saw the joy that it brought me and how dedicated I was to wrestling that it really changed their minds on it.

"I had knee surgery, I had a neck surgery. I was nearly paralyzed in a wrestling ring five years ago and overcame that. And I know personally I had moments where I was like 'Is this even worth it?'

"My mom always says 'I made you from scratch.' That's her thing all the time. 'I made you from scratch, so to see you get hurt breaks my heart more than you can imagine.' I don't have kids, so I can't imagine, but to show them this is all paying off, to have something physical to show them really means a lot."

Making History with Athena and Being a Role Model

Willow and Athena having the first women's main event in ROH PPV history was obviously a special moment for both stars, but doing it as two Black women made it even more historic.

Moments like that can serve to inspire the next generation of young Black women who want to pursue a career in the ring, but for Nightingale, being that kind of role model wasn't something she thought she was capable of until it happened.

"It really does mean so much," she said. "When I started wrestling, that was not my goal. I don't think I set out to inspire younger girls or younger Black people. I didn't see that power within myself. As I did start doing more, I would see people come to me at merchandise tables and be like 'My daughter feels inspired by your curly hair.' Something which to me feels very trivial.

"The reason I started wearing my curly hair when I wrestled is if I ever straightened it and I sweat for 20 minutes, I'm gonna have curly hair anyway. It was like 'Well, this is who I am. I can't hide from it. I'm not gonna hide from it. I'm gonna embrace it.'

"And that's when I started having people tell me 'That matters to this person. To these little eyes, having you be the person who is big and powerful, it shows that physically, you are embodying feminine strength. And you're big, and you have curly hair, and you're a little quirky, and you are a woman of color.'

"These are things that people resonate with personally. Growing up, I didn't get to see a lot. So to have such a coveted position on a card like that in such a big role, it shows younger girls, younger people of color, that not only do we deserve a spot on the show, but we can also be the very best thing on the show.

"Never downplay who you are or downsize who you are because there is so much power and so much you're worthy of, even if you haven't tapped into it yet."

Facing Mercedes Moné at Double or Nothing

When Willow won the NJPW Strong women's title last May, Moné suffered an injury that kept her out of action for almost a year.

The CEO will step back into the ring with The Babe With the Power for her return to the ring at Double or Nothing, but this time it will be the TBS title on the line.

Not only is the champion hoping this match ends the same way as their first encounter, but she is also hoping it puts to bed any doubts about her first victory.

"The way that I could top [the first win] is by walking out the winner and there will be no question in anyone's mind of if the only way I could beat Mercedes is if she gets injured in the match," she said.

"There is a little bit of a pro and con to this. Mercedes hasn't wrestled in a full year. I've been able to find my strengths as a performer over the past year, so that's all on display for her to study and figure out what my strong and weak points could be.

"Although she has a full catalog of matches for me to watch, I don't know what she's been working on while she's been healing up. I only have the past to go on and I'm confident in what my game plan is going to be, but let's hope there aren't too many surprises that I'm unprepared for."

Stokely Hathaway and Kris Statlander

Nightingale's real-life friendship with Kris Statlander has been part of their story for several months, but the addition of Stokely Hathaway as a manager has added a new dynamic to their characters and given both women a chance to let loose and have some fun.

We asked Willow if it's ever difficult to keep a straight face whenever Hathaway starts saying something ridiculous.

"For me, part of the joy is that I'm not this stone-faced stoic character anyway, so if he says something ridiculous and I let a little giggle out, that's genuine and I don't have any shame in doing so because he is truly hilarious," she said.

"At the end of the day, wrestling is my job. I love it, it's my passion, but it is also my job. So there are times where you're like 'Aw man, work is work.'

"And things are a little less fun, but working with Stokely and Kris has really made it so fun for me. I have genuinely had so much fun every week showing up, like 'What are we gonna do this week, guys? What's going on?'"

Ambitions Outside of Wrestling

Many wrestlers have business ventures outside of the ring and ideas for what they want to do once their career wraps up.

Nightingale's main focus is still on professional wrestling, but she does have some interesting aspirations for other potential careers.

"I was on the indies for maybe six or seven years before wrestling became my full-time career. Before that, I was a piercer, so I worked at a tattoo shop," she said. "There was a piece of me that was like 'Well I could always do this forever or I could open my own tattoo shop.' And I do think about that from time to time.

"Now that I am kind of in this role where I am on television, which is crazy to think about sometimes, I do think hosting a game show could be really cool. Or a children's show is kind of my dream. To have a Mr. Rogers-type show, that would be really awesome.

"I have been tossing around the idea of going back to school while doing this just to have a degree to fall back on or to get extra knowledge on how to run my business if that is an avenue I want to embark on, but mainly I feel like I'm drawn to things where I can either help educate children or just generally bring that spark of Willow bubbliness to different events."

If anybody reading this works for PBS, please create a show called Ms. Rogers' Neighborhood and cast Ms. Nightingale as the titular character. The world will thank you.

Movie Review: Barbie

We always end our AEW interviews with a movie review, and Willow picked a film that is just as positive and inspiring as she is.

"The first movie that came to my mind was the Barbie movie," she said. "I saw it when it was in theaters and then recently I saw it again. My friends and I do Galentine's Day, so we had a little get-together and watched it again.

"For me personally, when I was a teenager, I was coming up on Tumblr. A lot of the messages you saw in Barbie in terms of feminism and also the way that sometimes society can pull us in so many different directions of what is the right way to behave, to be seen, being perceived, but if you go too far in one way or another, people are going to have some trash to talk about you, so at the end of the day you just have to be yourself.

"That message, I think, is very deeply rooted in Barbie, but I was like 'I've known this for years. This messaging was yelled to me on Tumblr for years and years and years.' For that message to reach a new generation and to be taken in by younger women is amazing. When I was sitting in the theater and there's that speech America Ferrera gives pretty much addressing just that, I started welling up with tears.

"So women, keep shining. Keep being you. That's the go-home."

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You can see Willow defend the TBS Championship against Moné at AEW Double or Nothing on May 26.