All Elite Wrestling (AEW) wrestler and former New Japan Strong Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale spoke to amNewYork Metro about the upcoming Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe stadium, her career highlights, and her goals for the future.
For pro-wrestlers and their fans, the adrenaline rush of a packed, New York City arena is second to none. However, for Willow — who rocketed to stardom in 2023 after defeating former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Mercedes Moné in a tournament — performing in the Big Apple is extra special.
Willow, a Long Island native, told amNewYork Metro that she is excited to be able to achieve her dreams in front of friends and family at an arena she grew up familiar with.
“These are venues that I pass in my day-to-day life all the time, but I also have this special opportunity to share this with my friends and family. Whenever we’re at local shows, I invite my parents and my siblings. And for a long time, my parents had stopped watching me wrestle because I had broken my neck a few years ago and I think it was too much for my parents to see,” Willow said. “When I went back to wrestling at school gymnasiums they just didn’t get why it was worth it. And I’ve really been able to stick it to them and be like: ‘Hey guys, look at me now.’”
When AEW Grand Slam sets up its ring in Arthur Ashe stadium on Sept. 20, Willow says she wants to continue a lineage of Black women thriving in the area, such as Coco Gauff, who just won the U.S Open.
Willow also spoke about the moment that really put her on the map within the wrestling world: when she won the Strong Women’s tournament to become a champion. Willow told amNewYork Metro that she had to change her training and regiment in order to compete in the April 27 single-elimination, multi-promotion tournament where she went one-on-one with Mercedes Moné. Shocking many, she defeated the former WWE heavyweight to become the Strong Women’s champion.
“I wasn’t just representing Willow anymore, I was representing AEW, in this case, against obviously an amazing competitor, somebody who I consider to be one of the most prolific women wrestlers,” Willow recalled. “It was a big flipping of a switch in terms of my career, I think it was a big launching pad for me. In a personal realm, it also was this big moment of like, wow, you can really do this.”
With the rumor mill spinning that Mercedes Moné could, at some point, be heading to AEW, Willow said she would love a rematch.
“She did get injured in that match, so there is always going to be that little chip on my shoulder, and the little asterisk where people are like ‘Oh, but Mercedes got hurt,'” Willow said. “I’d like to just have the most competitive match that we could, you know, barring any kind of confusion out from left field, and just have a nice match and see where that brings us.”
Willow believes conquering Moné was just the beginning for her and, now that fans have seen what she can do, she says she is looking to becoming a contender for the AEW women’s championship.
“I had an opportunity to wrestle Tony Storm when she was the champion at Forbidden Door in Toronto earlier this year. I didn’t walk away the champion, but I do feel like that was kind of at a turning point where people started seeing me more and more of a legitimate contender for that championship,” she said. “So, in the next few weeks, in the coming months, I hope to continue to prove that I’m a worthy competitor for that and a legitimate contender for that and walk away with that championship.”
