I mentioned my hopes for the history between Willow Nightingale and Mercedes Mone becoming more of a focal point for their feud in my “loved” section after Nightingale won the TBS Championship at AEW Dynasty on Sunday, and my hopes and wishes were granted on “Dynamite.” While I did find it silly that Mone wasn’t promoted for the show, especially as AEW touted returning to Daily’s Place as a “homecoming,” as it usually does, I guess I should have expected to see her. She’s never an unwelcome sight, even when she’s playing the heel, and her crashing Nightingale’s championship victory celebration made total sense; here comes Mone, ready to rain on the parade.

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It’s the contents of the promo between these two women that I really loved. Nightingale got sassy to start things off, which I loved, because frankly, how can you NOT love the energy that woman brings to everything? I’ve become a very fast fan of Nightingale’s. She flat out told Mone that it was “like the fourth time” she’s interrupted her. Mone, of course, responded pretty generically, telling Nightingale that she needs to enjoy her celebration, because in 32 days at Double Or Nothing, she’ll be the one emerging victorious as TBS Champion. But Mone’s real reason for interrupting the new champion was to ask if she was “that b****” that attacked her in the dark. Nightingale had also been attacked backstage prior to her mixed tag team match with Adam Copeland, so Statlander spoke up and told Mone she wasn’t making sense.

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It was then that Nightingale voiced her belief that Mone has a “personal vendetta” against her because of their history in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, when Mone was injured facing off against her for the newly-created NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship. Nightingale went more personal with this approach, saying that she herself was questioning her own victory, and continued to do so the following day when she saw the discourse on social media. She made it known that there would be “no asterisk” on her TBS Championship win when she defeats Mone, who will presumably be at 100 percent, at Double Or Nothing. Nightingale adding the personal, human touch to this, while bringing up a little bit more about their feud and why Mone doesn’t like her for the more casual fan, was excellent to me, and exactly what I wanted. That’s what this feud needs to be based off of, especially with AEW’s working relationship with NJPW. It’s not something that should be ignored. This feud is much more interesting because of it, rather than the more simple angle of Nightingale being a lovable babyface and Mone wanting gold. With a few weeks left until they face off in Las Vegas, I think there’s much more to be explored here, and it’s nice to have another rich women’s storyline in this company.

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Written by Daisy Ruth