Toni Storm & Willow Nightingale Reportedly Both Once Set To Win Owen Hart Tournament

Both Toni Storm and Willow Nightingale were once set to win the Owen Hart Tournament.

Over the last week, both Mercedes Moné and Maya World qualified for the final of this year’s Women’s Owen Hart Tournament. However, when the brackets were announced, neither woman was part of the lineup, with ‘The CEO’ entering as the wildcard and Maya coming in as a last-minute replacement for Sareee when the Japanese star couldn’t get cleared in time to compete. Now, two names AEW pencilled in to win the tournament have been revealed.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed Toni Storm was initially set to win the Owen Hart Tournament

“The original match was Thekla and Toni Storm. [After Toni was out] it was Thekla and Willow Nightingale. I don’t know what the Mercedes plan was, but they had to change. They had to get her in the tournament.”

-Dave Meltzer

Unfortunately for fans of Nightingale, injury forced the former TBS Champion to vacate her title and step out of the tournament having initially set to face Alex Windsor in the first round of the tournament. As yet, little is known about how long she’s set to spend on the sidelines.

As for Storm, the 30-year-old has been ruled out of action since being laid out backstage on the March 18 edition of Dynamite. While the true nature behind her absence hasn’t been revealed, it was reported not long after that ‘The Timeless One’ being off our screens isn’t to do with an injury. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on AEW’s plans for the Owen Hart Tournaments as soon as we hear more.

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