Mercedes Moné has opened up about her history with Willow Nightingale ahead of their showdown at AEW All In 2026.
Moné is set to challenge Nightingale for the AEW Women’s World Championship at the event, adding another chapter to a rivalry that dates back several years.
In her latest Moné Mag newsletter, Moné reflected on attending AEW All In 2023 at Wembley Stadium as a fan. She revealed that she was still having discussions with WWE at the time she received an invitation to attend the show.
“Let me take you all the way back to 2023. At the time, I was still going back and forth in talks with WWE when I got an invitation to go to All In London. Now, you guys know me. I LOVE professional wrestling. So there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to miss the opportunity to witness something this big—a wrestling show of this magnitude, outside of WWE, at Wembley Stadium. I love history. I love being around history, and even more than that, I love being a part of it. The second I got to London, something just felt different. The energy was right.”
Despite not being signed with AEW, Moné said Tony Khan was so excited about her being at Wembley that he wanted her to film a backstage segment with Nightingale.
“Then I saw Tony backstage, and he was SO excited to have me there. So excited, in fact, that he wanted me to do a backstage segment with… WILLOW! I was like— WOWOWOWOW. WAIT! I am NOT signed. I do NOT work here. I’m just here to enjoy the show! Backstage, I got to see so many familiar faces—Amanda Huber, Renee, Rusev—and I got to meet so many new people too.”
Moné ultimately got the opportunity to experience the event from the crowd, something she noted was rare during her wrestling career. She recalled only doing something similar once before when she attended one of Bayley’s WrestleMania matches in disguise.
“Then I was escorted to my box seats, and for once… I got to be a FAN. Do you understand how rare that is for me? I never really got the opportunity to sit in the crowd and just be a fan at WrestleMania. Okay… MAYBE there was one time I went in disguise for Bayley’s match. But that’s another story. This time, I could actually sit there. No match to prepare for. No entrance to think about. No pressure.”
She continued, “Just Moné and more than 80,000 screaming wrestling fans celebrating the thing I love most in this entire world. From the way I was treated to the moment I arrived at Wembley, I remember thinking: Wait… I Love this!”
Moné also addressed the injury she suffered during her 2023 match against Nightingale, which kept her out of action for roughly a year. She admitted that it took therapy for her to stop blaming Nightingale for what happened.
“But there was something else happening during that time. I was hurt, and when you’re hurt, you have A LOT of time to think. Willow and I had already crossed paths in 2023, and for a long time, I carried feelings about what happened to me in that match. It’s taken a lot of therapy for me to stop putting the blame on her. It was a freak accident.”
Moné acknowledged that she repeatedly went over the injury in her mind while sidelined, questioning whether Nightingale’s positioning played a role.
“But I’m not going to pretend there weren’t moments where I replayed everything in my head. Her positioning. Her hands on the ropes and turnbuckle. Not having enough room to fully get my foot onto that top turnbuckle. Over, and over, and over again. That’s what happens when you’re injured. Your body stops, but your mind doesn’t.”
Eventually, Moné said she began looking at the injury differently and viewed the time away as an opportunity to heal beyond just the physical setback.
“Eventually, though, I started asking myself a different question. Maybe God wasn’t telling me to stop wrestling. Maybe God was telling me to slow down. To heal, and not just physically. Mentally. Emotionally. Spiritually. Because at that point in my life, I was putting on the strongest face I could possibly find within myself.”
Make sure to join us here at WrestlingHeadlines.com on 8/30 for live AEW All In: London 2026 Results coverage.
