Willow Nightingale says AEW All In gauntlet match left her in ‘flurry of emotions’
Willow Nightingale says she went through a roller coaster of emotions at AEW All In.
Nightingale wrestled in the Women’s Casino Gauntlet match on the show. During a recent interview with Blavity, she says she cried after it was over because of what the match meant to AEW’s women’s division.
Nightingale said:
“I literally cried the moment the bell rang and the match was over, just because it was a flurry of emotions. I think holding it together all day, realizing how big the moment was — not just for myself, but our whole division. To have a match that spotlights all of us and gives us the time, and it’s on the main card. And just being there at the start of that match and watching it all unfold in front of me…the moment it was done, I was like, OK, release everything. That was the biggest, oh, OK, we’re going up the rollercoaster, and now here’s the emotional explosion.“
The gauntlet match went 27 minutes and ended when Athena pinned Mina Shirakawa to earn a shot at Toni Storm’s AEW Women’s World Championship, which is scheduled for Forbidden Door.
Also during the interview, Nightingale commented on the potential of AEW introducing women’s tag team titles. She said:
“[The women’s division] has been making up a lot of time with tags, and we’ve been doing these all-star tags. I think if it’s there, if you’re already putting these types of matches out, reward us, give us something to fight for. I think it would be really cool.”
Nightingale also mentioned that Tony Khan once told her and Kris Statlander to walk to the ring like The Road Warriors, which got her thinking about the two of them possibly wrestling in a Stardom tag league tournament.
“He was like, yeah, you guys go down to the ring like you’re big, bad, tough, you’re cool like The Road Warriors. Go out there and do it! Let’s go. It put it in my head, I was like, oh my God, if that’s how you would view Stat and I, the peak would be to do [Goddesses of Stardom] Tag League over at Stardom. I think that would be so cool.”
She said AEW’s roster has the depth to pull off a women’s tag division.
“I think we have the chemistry within the locker room between teams and alliances to make it happen and make it exciting. Also, AEW is built on tag team wrestling. Our founders are the Young Bucks, and I think tag team matches are really some of our best matches. Let’s get some women’s tag matches up there as the best matches you’ve ever seen. I do think we have the depth in the locker room to pull it off.”
Nightingale also discussed wrestling in the Tokyo Dome, her ongoing storyline with Statlander, intergender wrestling, and more. The full article is available here.