Willow Nightingale Praises The New Day For Spotlighting Joyful Black Characters In Wrestling
Willow Nightingale credits WWE’s The New Day for helping embrace joyful Black characters in wrestling.
Back in 2014, Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods came together to form The New Day, with the trio’s “power of positivity” catapulting them into superstardom. Collectively, The New Day hold the record for the most WWE-branded tag team championship reigns at 13, whilst both Kofi Kingston and Big E captured the WWE Championship during their time with the faction.
Appearing on Marking Out with MVP & Dwayne Swayze alongside Harley Cameron, Willow Nightingale credited The New Day for making Black joy and positivity feel powerful in the wrestling industry.
“I also personally would like to do a shout out to New Day because when we talk about a Willow Nightingale kind of character of breaking down a stereotype and embracing the positivity and joy, black joy, and being carefree and whimsical. I think they helped people accept that and be like, ‘Yeah, that is cool. Right on.’ And can kind of make way for me to also be like, ‘That is what I’ve been dishing out.’”
-Willow Nightingale
Big E has since reacted to the quote from Willow Nightingale, highlighting how much of a fan he is of the AEW star and praising her for inspiring the next generation in her own right.
The New Day currently perform on Monday Night RAW, however the faction is now comprised solely of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, with the pair having turned heel by kicking Big E out of the group in December 2024.
Willow Nightingale, meanwhile, currently holds the AEW TBS Championship in her second reign and is set to defend the title against a returning Kamille on tomorrow night’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
For the latest updates on All Elite Wrestling and its roster, you can find more coverage here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for both The New Day and Willow Nightingale as soon as we hear more.
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