Willow Nightingale Has Her Eyes On Gold, Focused On Conditioning To Keep Doing Long Matches

Willow Nightingale has her eyes on the prize. 

Willow Nightingale has become a staple on AEW Collision since the show premiered on June 17. She won the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament on the show, defeating Ruby Soho in the finals, and is now aligned with AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander in a feud with Mercedes Martinez and Diamante. 

Speaking on 99.9 The Drive ahead of AEW Collision, Willow was asked what the next evolution is for her. 

“Right now, as much as I’m proud of my in-ring work, I’m always trying to fine-tune it. Luckily, we have some of the smartest people about wrestling backstage. It’s listening to things that I can still improve upon, going to training and making sure that’s done. Recently, I had a match with Athena at Death Before Dishonor, and that was 20 minutes or so. That’s the longest match I’ve had in my Ring of Honor/AEW career. I’d really like to move forward, being able to have lengthy feature matches again. I’ve really been focusing on conditioning, trying to be able to make sure that I can do 30-minute matches because if I am put in that position again, and hopefully I am, I want to be able to go and not have any restraints holding me back. My good friend Kris Stat [Kris Statlander], of course I’m going to help her out and we’re going to do our best, but it’s not lost on me that she is a champion at AEW, and I’m not. Hikaru Shida became AEW Women’s Champion, I’m a huge fan of hers. I got to wrestle her on the Jericho Cruise last year and it would be awesome to have a match televised for our fans to see how that turns out. There are a lot of directions that the next few months could go for me. That’s where I have my attention; who are the champs, what are they doing, how do I reach that level? Only time will tell what I do, but that’s where my eyes are,” she said.

Willow teamed with Statlander in a loss to Diamante & Mercedes Martinez on Saturday’s AEW Collision. 

She is set to face Diamante in singles competition on the August 19 episode of AEW Collision. Fans can check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here. 

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