Willow Nightingale Comments on Her Recent NJPW Strong Women’s Title Victory
A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured Willow Nightingale as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Nightingale’s thoughts on her victory over Mercedes Mone to be crowned the inaugural NJPW Strong Women’s Champion.
“It’s very surreal because like you said, she (Mercedes Moné) is extremely accomplished. I’m a fan of hers and I think respect goes into what we do in wrestling through and through, but in an instance like this, I remember sitting on the couch and watching when she made her main roster debut on Raw and I went through the house screaming and my mom was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I was very excited because I had gone to school in Boston and she was a Boston girl, she’s a woman of color and it really just seemed like everything she did, she truly believed in herself and it’s something that inspired (audio cut out)… Even before AEW and Ring of Honor, if this company doesn’t see the star power in me, I know the star power in myself and she was somebody I could kind of turn to and be like, that is the attitude that I need and she was in so many landmark matches and 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 could earn respect from her and the New Japan fan base.”
Nightingale also gave her thoughts about her plans to get some training at NJPW’s LA Dojo in Los Angeles, California and not wanting people to view her championship reign with an asterisk due to Mone’s injury at NJPW’s Resurgence 2023 event.
“I think people at this point are aware that Mercedes (Moné) is probably gonna be out for some time. She’s the only one that can tell you how long, exactly what happened to her and I do hope she gets well and recovers as quickly as possible. If I still have this title by the time she comes back, I would love a rematch. But with that being said, I think there are more eyes on me than ever before. I’m somebody who’s very used to people being on my side, people cheering me and people rooting for me and after this championship win, I did receive a lot of that. A lot of people saying, ‘You deserve it,’ a lot of people saying, ‘It’s about time.’ But there have also been a handful of people who don’t think I can live up to what being a champion is, especially of this caliber and now I recognize the fact that the championship is on me, right? They can’t change that and the only thing I can do is step up and prove to them that I am worthy of this title. So one of the things that I’m planning on doing is trying to find some time to head out to L.A., train over there at the New Japan Dojo. Really kind of look at my schedule and reevaluate how much training I can fit into being on the road on top of what I’m already doing. So for me, those are like the first steps because I know that I don’t want this to be something that people — when they look at the history books and they see Willow Nightingale is the first New Japan STRONG Women’s Champion, I don’t want them to see a little asterisk and be like, oh, well she only won because her opponent got hurt and it was an easy victory but that’s pro wrestling baby. That’s how it happens. If you get hurt, that day, the fight wasn’t on your side. The fight was on my side that night and here I am, champion, so the only thing I can do to move forward as a champion and that is wear this title with pride and do all I can to continue defending it for as long as I can.”
Nightingale also gave her thoughts on wanting to defend her NJPW Strong Women’s Championship at future AEW and Ring of Honor shows if possible.
“This week, we are in Las Vegas for the Double or Nothing pay-per-view. We have a lot of plans already in action. We see that we’ve got Toni (Storm) versus Jamie Hayter coming up. We’ve got Jade Cargill versus Taya Valkyrie coming up and those are championships that have been spotlighted in our company because they are AEW Championships. I hope moving forward that we can feature this (NJPW STRONG Women’s Title) more and more. But, going into a pay-per-view, those are the matches that we’re gonna see and those are what are gonna be highlighted moving into it. So I am happy we were able to get a moment to spotlight this and talk about this and hope that the next time that I am in a ring for AEW or Ring of Honor, I’m able to show my strength, show that I’m strong as the title suggests and you know… Tony (Khan) knows what’s in the works for AEW and what Dynamite is gonna look like next week. I’d love to be included in that and really be able to show a fun championship match. But, I was very happy to at least say my peace and have a little hoorah. Walking in the back in the locker room and hearing everyone go, ‘Hey champ!’ is something that takes a little bit to get used to. But you know, I do it with a smile like this and say, ‘Thank you.’”
Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com
Impact Under Siege 2023 News & Notes
Friday’s Under Siege 2023 event for Impact Wrestling in London, Ontario, Canada featured Jake Crist making his surprise return to the company. Crist was revealed to be the mystery third man for Sami Callihan’s team against The Design in a Six-Man match at the event. This was Crist’s first appearance in Impact since August of 2021.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that both Steve Maclin and PCO were busted open the hard way during their No DQ match for the Impact World Championship at the event. Johnson reported that Maclin suffered the legitimate cut following him getting struck in the head with a cooking sheet and required stitches to close his wound backstage.
D’Lo Brown reportedly was in attendance backstage working as a producer during Impact’s Under Siege 2023 event, according to PWInsider.
WOW TV Ratings – May 7, 2023
WOW reportedly drew 283,000 viewers for their May 7th episode on syndication. It drew a 0.05 18-49 rating.
WOW reportedly had been averaging between 254,000 viewers to 336,000 viewers and a 0.04 to 0.07 18-49 rating for their WOW TV shows over the past six weeks on syndication.
Source: Wrestlenomics
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