On a stacked roster that incorporates a CEO, a timeless film star, a fallen goddess, an African queen, and lots of others in its forged of characters, it could be robust for the typical girl to face out amongst the pack.
Fortunately for AEW star Willow Nightingale, she’s the furthest factor from common.
Lower than three years into her time in All Elite Wrestling, she has amassed a resume that many wrestlers might solely dream of. She is a former AEW TBS Champion, the 2023 Owen Hart Basis Girls’s Match winner, and the primary girl (alongside Marina Shafir) to take part in AEW’s signature Anarchy In The Area match.
If her work in the US wasn’t spectacular sufficient, her worldwide accolades shine even brighter. She was the inaugural NJPW Robust Girls’s Champion, inking her title in historical past atop Japan’s high wrestling promotion, New Japan Professional-Wrestling. Nightingale can be a former CMLL World Girls’s Champion. CMLL is the oldest wrestling promotion on the earth, celebrating 92 years of Mexican lucha libre excellence this October. She’s carried out in among the world’s most well-known venues, together with Wembley Stadium, Area Mexico, and the Tokyo Dome. On high of that, she’s main-evented PPVs for Ring of Honor Wrestling and New Japan Professional-Wrestling.
Maybe her best accomplishment is the connection she’s cast with wrestling followers world wide. Her trademark, “Nothing Issues, Smile Anyway,” resonates each time she steps within the ring, enchanting audiences along with her shiny grin and cheerful disposition. “The Babe With The Energy” brings a hard-hitting model and penchant for violence to the desk that has made her some of the in style performers in AEW.
Blavity caught up with Willow Nightingale for a Q&A about her 2025 successes, breaking limitations in intergender wrestling, the expansion of the AEW ladies’s division, and extra.
On her and Marina Shafir turning into the primary ladies to compete in an Anarchy In The Area match
I feel Anarchy In The Area, together with actually any huge second in my profession, you don’t understand the gravity of it till you’re on the opposite aspect. Trying across the room and seeing who I used to be teaming with was mind-boggling. I noticed on Twitter any individual referred to us as, if AEW had assembled their Avengers, that is the staff that they might’ve picked. And I used to be like, that’s loopy. To go searching at individuals like that — [Samoa] Joe, Kenny [Omega], actually everybody on the staff. If you go searching and take into consideration how these are individuals that you just’ve admired for years, and you then’re like, oh, however I’m not simply trying as much as them. I’m their peer.
I’m simply as deserving of being right here as they’re, however I nonetheless do clearly know that they’re a lot extra skilled than I and have a lot extra information handy right down to me. In these weeks once I was working with the blokes, I used to be simply making an attempt to soak up as a lot as attainable — whether or not that simply be the best way that they command themselves, the best way that they converse to different individuals, the best way that they view and current themselves. I felt like that was an important factor that I attempted to select up on. As a result of in ladies’s wrestling, now it’s altering somewhat bit the place you will note ladies having for much longer careers. However while you’re veterans of wrestling for 20-plus years, you don’t come throughout that in different ladies fairly often. You’re not seeing it within the locker room — how any individual with that a lot expertise below their belt presents and carries themselves.
On intergender wrestling
The primary time I felt like I actually type of acquired to combine it up was once I tagged with Swerve [Strickland] in opposition to Marina and Mox to the purpose that they each put fingers on us as effectively, which I feel was the factor that actually shattered down that barrier, made the little crack to have it open up for Anarchy In The Area. It’s one thing that I put on with satisfaction to be one of many individuals that actually helped push the boundaries. There are such a lot of folks that paved the best way for intergender wrestling to occur on tv in such a means. I can’t say that I do know what’s going to occur or that it’s going to occur, however personally, having been any a part of it, if it does occur, it could be actually cool. It could imply so much.
On the potential for a Girls’s Blood And Guts match
To see how the division has advanced from these early days to carry onto all of that great, aesthetically pleasing [part of being] ladies’s wrestlers, however nonetheless kick a– in a bloody, gory mixture of all the things too, I feel we’re actually making an attempt to push and present that. Quite a lot of occasions, individuals will say our ladies’s division is simply pretty much as good as our males’s division, and I really feel that needs to be commonplace all over the place, everywhere. However I really feel like now we have our personal distinctive identification, and I actually do assume a Blood And Guts sort match is part of that. I feel we love bearing that. I feel we love the viscerality of that, so it’s about time if one thing like that does occur.
On her Chappell Roan-inspired gear for AEW All In Texas
I used to be very pleased with the way it turned out. I put precise belt buckles on it, which — {hardware} was not one thing that I’ve ever labored with earlier than in that capability. In order that was a bit difficult, and in addition might not be probably the most sensible factor for very extremely bodily contact skilled wrestling. I do assume until there was a special day once more the place that gear type of felt applicable, I don’t know that it will likely be getting one other put on, however I’m so pleased with what it was for what it was. Months in the past, once I noticed Chappell put on that to the Grammys, I used to be like, oh, that appears snug. It seems like it could be good wrestling gear, and All In is in Texas this 12 months, so if I find yourself doing one thing on the present, I actually do need that to be the route I’m going.
Followers did additionally assume so. Really, considered one of my coworkers had additionally steered it to me like, “Hey, you must do that.” After which all of the followers steered it too. So the On line casino Gauntlet will get introduced, and I’m like, I suppose there’s an opportunity I might be in there. I can buy material and attempt to begin making gear, perhaps.
On All In Texas
I actually cried the second the bell rang and the match was over, simply because it was a flurry of feelings. I feel holding it collectively all day, realizing how huge the second was — not only for myself, however our entire division. To have a match that spotlights all of us and offers us the time, and it’s on the principle card. And simply being there initially of that match and watching all of it unfold in entrance of me…the second it was completed, I used to be like, OK, launch all the things. That was the most important, oh, OK, we’re going up the rollercoaster, and now right here’s the emotional explosion.
On being considered one of three Black ladies to wrestle within the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Dynasty
There’s so much about ’90s Joshi wrestling that actually impressed me. Aja Kong being an enormous one by way of being a biracial one who doesn’t essentially match the standard physique sort of what a wrestler is assumed to seem like, and being the hardest, most badass particular person conceivable. So to consider somebody like her breaking down limitations, then myself, Athena, and Mercedes Moné, which I’m not any individual who actually likes to speak about my relationships with individuals outdoors of the ring. Clearly Athena and Mercedes are each superb wrestlers. I feel they’ve unhealthy attitudes, however finally, I respect what they do. I respect who they’re and what they’ve needed to undergo to get the place they’re in wrestling. Hell, I’ll say this — an enormous a part of the explanation I used to be crying at All In is that if I wasn’t the one who gained [the women’s Casino Gauntlet], Athena profitable is one thing that may be very transferring to me.
To share a second like being on the Tokyo Dome, which for the previous few many years hasn’t actually had many ladies carry out there…to have Black ladies come over and be part of what I feel is likely one of the most charming wrestling cultures that exists regardless of racism right here, there, and all over the place on the earth, nonetheless having the ability to be part of that…I’m somewhat perplexed nonetheless, as a result of life strikes so quick and I don’t actually get to at all times sink into issues, eat as a lot as I strive. Nevertheless it was simply cool. It was one other a type of moments the place I didn’t get the total scope of it till it was completed. After I was standing there with Athena and Mercedes, and it’s like, OK, that is thrilling for me due to my very own fandom, after which hugging and being collectively, realizing the scope of what it means for thus many extra individuals outdoors of myself, and the way a lot greater it’s than simply me is so much.
On the potential of AEW ladies’s tag staff championships
I feel it’s a truthful commentary to notice that there’s a restricted quantity of tv time for everybody on the roster. [The women’s division] has been making up a variety of time with tags, and we’ve been doing these all-star tags. I feel if it’s there, in the event you’re already placing most of these matches out, reward us, give us one thing to struggle for. I feel it could be actually cool.
When [Kris] Stat and I had been teaming, I bear in mind there was one time Tony [Khan] had requested us, he was like, yeah, you guys ought to stroll right down to the ring just like the Highway Warriors. He was like, yeah, you guys go right down to the ring such as you’re huge, unhealthy, robust, you’re cool like The Highway Warriors. Go on the market and do it! Let’s go. It put it in my head, I used to be like, oh my God, if that’s how you’ll view Stat and I, the height can be to do [Goddesses of Stardom] Tag League over at Stardom. I feel that may be so cool.
Whoever is following me and watching me most likely already is aware of about Stardom and joshi [wrestling] as a result of I discuss it on a regular basis, however go and watch these issues. I need to deliver it right here. I’d like to have one thing like that. I’d like to find time for it and current it in such a means the place it might actually not simply be an attraction, however the attraction. I feel now we have the chemistry inside the locker room between groups and alliances to make it occur and make it thrilling. Additionally, AEW is constructed on tag staff wrestling. Our founders are the Younger Bucks, and I feel tag staff matches are actually a few of our greatest matches. Let’s get some ladies’s tag matches up there as the most effective matches you’ve ever seen. I do assume now we have the depth within the locker room to tug it off.
On her ongoing saga with former buddy and tag staff accomplice Kris Statlander
I feel in skilled wrestling, a variety of occasions, feuds are primarily based round championships. However a championship belt just isn’t one thing that’s essentially as relatable to the viewers as friendship is, which I feel is mostly a purpose individuals have been capable of sink their tooth into [the rivalry with Statlander], particularly as a result of it’s one thing that’s so real and genuine and actual, and it’s not simply one thing that we threw collectively for tv.
There’s true historical past there. Stat and I are from the identical a part of New York, Lengthy Island. We did begin across the identical time. We each got here up by the indies collectively. I acquired to look at her shine in AEW earlier than I acquired there. After which once I acquired there, she was cheering on for me. We had that friendship within the locker room earlier than it was even offered on tv. And when it lastly was, I’ll say that was most likely probably the most enjoyable I used to be having in wrestling at the moment, as much as that time once I was working along with her on TV. It is sensible that one thing so natural and enjoyable for us would even be obtained effectively by individuals.
Simply as a lot as individuals perceive friendship, they perceive betrayal, they perceive jealousy, they perceive that typically it may be exhausting to select a aspect as a result of issues aren’t black and white. I feel that’s the most charming and attention-grabbing half about what’s going on with Stat and I. Clearly I perceive my perspective — I’m sitting on this physique, I really feel it, I reside it day by day — however I can nonetheless have a look at her and, one, respect what an incredible wrestler she is, and the exhausting work that she’s put in all the things, and really feel for her. I can perceive why she betrayed me, but it surely doesn’t take away the knife that she stabbed me with. And I feel that’s what individuals relate to.
On her objectives for the long run
I type of simply have a look at it as making an attempt to take care of a gentle incline, which might typically be exhausting as a result of there’s a complete lot of different badass, robust ladies on the roster who need to be within the spot that I’m in, not to mention the spot forward of me. As a result of it took me nevertheless a few years in AEW to get to the place I’m proper now, and I nonetheless need to get forward, however there are people who find themselves simply getting right here and say, no, Willow, I need to be the place you might be.
So there’s a really welcome struggle as a result of I like the ladies’s division as it’s proper now. I feel we’ve acquired a variety of new faces which have are available in and are hungry and hardworking, and I welcome it. It retains me sharp, and the way am I presupposed to get forward if the individuals round me aren’t pushing me to be my finest self? I need to proceed that climb. I’m not happy. We discuss doing stadiums, I feel it’s thrilling. I find it irresistible. There’s a variety of feelings round it, however what can be even cooler than wrestling at a stadium? Having a title match at a stadium or essential eventing a stadium. And so far as I do know, I haven’t completed that but. So there’s nonetheless work to do.
Catch Willow Nightingale on AEW Dynamite, reside each Wednesday on TBS and streaming on HBO Max, and AEW Collision, each Saturday on TNT and streaming on HBO Max.
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