In a recent interview with Busted Open Radio, NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale discussed several topics, including becoming the inaugural Champion at the NJPW Resurgence event when she defeated Mercedes Moné.

“It’s very surreal, because like you said, she is extremely accomplished, I’m a fan of hers and I think respect goes into what we do in wrestling through and through, but in an instance like this, I remember sitting on the couch and watching when she made her main roster debut on RAW, and I went through the house screaming and my Mom was like, what’s going on, and I was very excited, because I had gone to school in Boston and she was a Boston girl, she’s a woman of color and it really just seemed like everything she did, she truly believed in herself and it’s something that inspired me. Even before AEW and Ring of Honor, if this company doesn’t see the star power in me, I know the star power in myself and she was somebody I could kind of turn to and be like, that is the attitude that I need and she was in so many landmark matches and so, especially going into this, I knew the possibility of facing her was there, and I wanted to her proud as much as I did myself and hopefully, this is something that could earn respect from her and the New Japan fan base.

I think people at this point are aware that Mercedes is probably going to be out for some time, she’s the only one that can tell you how long, exactly what happened to her, and I do hope she gets well and recovers as quickly as possible. If I still have this title by the time she comes back, I would love a rematch, but with that being said, I think there are more eyes on me than ever before, I’m somebody who’s very used to people being on my side, people cheering me and people rooting for me and after this Championship win, I did receive a lot of that, a lot of people saying you deserve it, a lot of people saying it’s about time, but there have also been a handful of people who don’t think I can live up to what being a Champion is, especially of this caliber, and now, I recognize the fact that the Championship is on me right.

They can’t change that and the only thing I can do is step up and prove to them that I am worthy of this title, so one of the things that I’m planning on doing is trying to find some time to head out to LA, train over there at the New Japan dojo, really kind of look at my schedule and reevaluate how much training I can fit into being on the road on top of what I’m already doing, so for me, those are like the first steps, because I know that I don’t want this to be something that people, when they look at the history books and they see Willow Nightingale is the first New Japan STRONG Women’s Champion, I don’t want them to see a little asterisk and be like, oh well she only won because her opponent got hurt and it was an easy victory, but that’s pro wrestling baby, that’s how it happens. If you get hurt, that day the fight wasn’t on your side, the fight was on my side that night and here I am, Champion, so the only thing I can do to move forward as a Champion and that is wear this title with pride and do all I can to continue defending it for as long as I can.”

The full interview is available at this link.