AEW women's champion Willow Nightingale heads to All In match with hand injury, vows to keep title
AEW Women's Champion Willow Nightingale is heading into her title defense against Mercedes Moné at All In this Sunday with more than just a championship on the line. She's also nursing a broken left hand.
Nightingale revealed the injury during a recent appearance on "Collision," where she spoke to the crowd in Glasgow with a wrap visible around her left hand. Speaking directly to Moné, the champion made clear she had no plans to back down from their showdown at Wembley Stadium in London.
"Mercedes, listen honey, you can try to stop me, attack me, take away this moment from me and the lovely people of Glasgow, but injured or not, I'm still here and I'm still talking to you guys," Nightingale said. "Luckily, there will be many more good moments because I'll be damned if I let you take this championship from me on Sunday."
She continued, "So, listen Mercedes, you're obsessed with attacking me. You're obsessed with my smile. So, listen, I am your AEW women's world champion, and on Sunday, at Wembley Stadium, I am walking in with this championship and this smile and I'm walking out still your AEW women's world champion, still smiling."
The bad blood between the two traces back to last week, when Moné launched a backstage assault on Nightingale ahead of their scheduled match. Speaking with POST Wrestling, Nightingale confirmed the attack left real damage behind, not just storyline scars.
"She's broken," Nightingale said of her hand. "I have to go get an x-ray later today to figure out the severity of that, because that would then inform just how guarded it has to be on Sunday – whether I'm able to get any kind of like wrist flexibility, or just hands or if I'm going to kind of have a situation like this where I'm just like a stump. So we'll see, we'll see. But the heart is good, she's full of love and passion and ready to fight."
The injury adds a significant layer of uncertainty to one of the weekend's most anticipated matches. Nightingale acknowledged she may be limited in how much she can use the hand, but was clear that it would not change her approach.
In a separate interview with OutKick before All In, Nightingale discussed what she expects from the Wembley crowd, predicting a divided audience given Moné's popularity despite her villainous tactics.
"So, I'm definitely expecting a split crowd. I'll be completely honest," Nightingale said. "One of my biggest strengths is I know the people are there for me, I know the people are cheering for me, but I would be a fool to not recognize the popularity of Mercedes, even though people see her ways. They see that she's not truly like a good person at heart. There's something about her that some people are drawn to. So, I am kind of anticipating that."
She added, "My biggest strength maybe being a little torn, a little split, but as I mentioned, anytime you're kind of at this caliber, we're All Elite Wrestling. We're All Elite, and I'm in world championship tier, right? I am the world champ. The people who are going to be facing me for this are going to be elite. They're going to be bringing their best. They're going to be giving their all. So, I have to go in already knowing it's going to be a hard fight. Already knowing I'm going to have to push through when my body wants to give out."
Nightingale and Moné meet Sunday at All In, with the AEW Women's World Championship on the line. How the broken hand affects Nightingale's performance remains to be seen, but the champion has made clear she intends to walk out of Wembley still wearing the belt.