In the main event of NJPW Resurgence 2023, Willow Nightingale defeated Mercedes Mon to win the inaugural Strong Women's Championship, starting off what would become a three-year-long rivalry. Per reports, Mercedes was slated to win the match and called an audibleafter suffering an injury, setting up Nightingale to win instead.The two are now set to come to blows once again for the AEW Women's World Championship at All In, and in light of their pending clash, Mercedes has taken a look back at their history in the latest edition of her "MonMag.""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," she admitted, describing her 2023 injury as a freak accident, while still musing on the idea that Nightingale had something to do with it."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," she recalled. Mercedes wrote that she'd likely been going too hard after WWE, vulnerably revealing that she felt scared and unsure of herself after parting with the promotion, but that she decided to stay true to herself and not return to WWE. "I came to AEW with a mission," she claimed.
Mon also noted that Nightingale has since been in her way with every accolade she's gone after in AEW, like being the first-ever team to hold the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championships, and ending her TBS Championship run before Nightingale later dropped the title due to an injury. "Funny how life works, isn't it?" she noted. "Because somehow, after EVERYTHING... Here we are again.""I've been to every AEW ALL IN except the very first one in Chicago," she added, referring to the original event before AEW's existence. "I understood even then that something special was happening in professional wrestling." Mercedes expressed thatAllIn: London 2023 also made such an impression on her that it helped her decided to choose AEW. "This one feels different. Because I feel different. There is a fire inside of me right now that I haven't felt in a very long time."She then pivoted back to Nightingale, describing her as a "thorn" in her side since the moment their paths first crossed while professing that all the stumbling blocks and setbacks she's faced in AEW has formed her into the person she is today, and suggesting that everything has been building to All In 2026. "Willow and I have unfinished business. And after three years of our careers somehow finding their way back to each other..."If you use any quotes from this article, please credit"Mon Mag," and provide a h/t toWrestling Inc. for the transcription.
