Willow Nightingale looks back on making history.
Back in July, The AEW star took on Athena for the ROH Women’s Championship back at Death Before Dishonor, where the duo became the first women to ever headline a ROH pay-per-view. The match received critical acclaim, and has been called one of the best of 2023. Despite putting up an incredible effort, Willow fell short in her quest for the title and Athena kept her impressive reign as women’s champion alive.
Wrestling Headlines asked Willow to reflect on this match during a media scrum at Starrcast VI. She says that they knew the bout would be special because her previous encounters with Athena have always been matches she’s been proud of.
I mean, I think every time you are put into a big match like that, you hope that it will be something special. And the two times before that, that Athena and I had wrestled had really been matches I was proud of. Whether I came out the victor or not, I was definitely proud of the matches I had with her. So going in, you imagine that there’s going to be something special. But for me, having it be in Trenton, New Jersey, which is like, I’m from Long Island, so that’s the tri-state. That’s where I was grinding and cutting my teeth on the indies.
Willow continues…saying that the end result was a match she was more special than she ever could have imagined.
So having the crowd behind me like that, having my parents there, just the energy in the building, all of it together, being the first main event for a Ring of Honor pay-per-view that was by two women, it was more special than I could have imagined. And that is really saying something, considering the fact that I didn’t even walk away with the championship at the end of that night. I was hurting. I was tired. I desperately needed to take a nap after, maybe an ice bath too. But I still had a smile on my face, because even though I lost, I really knew that I laid out all that I could and did my best.
You can check out Willow’s full Starrcast scrum, where she discusses other topics like Eddie Kingston and wrestling Mercedes Moné, below.
(Please credit Wrestling Headlines for video and transcription)