Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Moné Was Reportedly AEW’s Original Plan For All In: London

It’s believed Mercedes Moné vs. Willow Nightingale was always the plan.

Last night, on AEW Dynamite, Willow Nightingale had her celebration for becoming AEW Women’s World Champion, with fans delighted to see “The Babe With The Power” finally climb the mountain in AEW. Plus, her win Thekla at Redemption set up a future match for Nightingale with Mercedes Moné, who won the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament at Forbidden Door to earn a title opportunity at All In: London, something fans weren’t sure if they’d see while “The Toxic Spider” still carried the gold. However, it now seems the Wembley match has been in the works for some time.

According to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio, Nightingale vs. Moné has long been the plan for All In, just with the champion and challenger roles reversed.

“The original Wembley was Mercedes as champion vs. Willow. So his [Tony Khan] plan was Mercedes being champion at All In. And there were a lot of things that almost spoiled his plan for this match, and he switched everything around to make sure he got back to the match he wanted.”

_{-Bryan Alvarez}

Originally, Nightingale was advertised to be part of the Owen Hart Tournament that was eventually won by Moné, with “The CEO” replaced Willow when she was sidelined with a shoulder injury towards the end of May. This provides yet another link between the two women, following on from their battles over the TBS Championship in 2024 and 2025.

Once ready, Willow returned at AEW Beach Break via the Casino Gauntlet to become No.1 contender for Redemption, a show in which the company were able to get back on track towards the match they reportedly had in the pipeline for Wembley. To further back this up, a previous report had suggested that Nightingale was one of two previous women discussed to win this year’s Owen Hart Tournament. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the plans for All In: London card as soon as we hear more.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to WrestlePurists.com for the transcription.