This past weekend, Mercedes Mone battled Willow Nightingale in a tournament final match to determine the inaugural New Japan Strong Women’s Champion. Mone was considered the heavy favorite to win it all but, unfortunately, she was injured during the match, reportedly breaking her ankle, and the finish of the match appeared to be changed on the fly, with Nightingale coming out on top.
Grapsody’s Righteous Reg made the trip from Oakland to Long Beach to watch the final match play out in person. On this past Tuesday’s Haus of Wrestling episode, Reg described the feeling in the room following Mone’s injury.
“It wasn’t super obvious as her falling down happened,” he stated. “Just like, ‘Okay, it looked kind of weird.’ And then, she kind of played it off a little bit, but then you’re kind of like, ‘Okay, something’s not right here,’ you could feel the energy kind of out throughout the place, of everybody being like, ‘Okay.’ It’s interesting, it’s not exactly, it doesn’t feel like it’s flowing like it should be.”
On yesterday’s AEW Double or Nothing media call, I asked Tony Khan about Mone’s injury and whether it affected any plans he had going forward. While he didn’t directly say whether or not it did, he did confirm the two have been talking and hinted that there could have been plans for Forbidden Door 2.
While there’s certainly interest in Mone’s recovery and future, we still have a brand new New Japan Strong Women’s Champion in Willow Nightingale.
“This is kind of one of those lightning in a bottle, you didn’t really know that you were gonna get this but you have this moment,” Reg said. “And it’s not like, I mean, she’s in this position, in this main event, for a reason. The fans are behind her. There are people behind the scenes that are behind her. She’s working for all these different independent promotions. She’s one of the hottest women’s wrestlers in the world at this point. And so this is only going to give her more momentum.
“And AEW, if they could utilize having another belt that’s not one of their own two women’s championships, to help somebody, Willow’s a great way to start. It’s a great problem to have. I think like, ‘Oh, well, we didn’t expect Willow to be the New Japan Strong Champion but she is now, so let’s go forward with it.’ She can now have this big Forbidden Door match and be involved in New Japan Strong, involved in all these things. It’s gonna be great for Willow.”
If you use any quotes from this article please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling for the transcription and link back