Mercedes Moné and Willow Nightingale are about to collide at AEW All In 2026, but Tony Khan was already trying to put them together years before Mercedes ever signed a contract.
Moné revealed in her latest Moné Mag that she attended All In 2023 as a fan while she was still going back and forth with WWE. She wasn’t working for AEW. She wasn’t there for a match. She just wanted to see what the hell was happening at Wembley Stadium. Mercedes said the second she got to London, the whole thing felt different.
“Let me take you all the way back to 2023. At the time, I was still going back and forth in talks with WWE when I got an invitation to go to All In London. Now, you guys know me. I LOVE professional wrestling. So there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to miss the opportunity to witness something this big—a wrestling show of this magnitude, outside of WWE, at Wembley Stadium.”
“I love history. I love being around history, and even more than that, I love being a part of it. The second I got to London, something just felt different. The energy was right.”
Then Tony Khan saw her backstage and apparently got an idea immediately. According to Mercedes, Khan wanted her to shoot a backstage segment with Willow Nightingale right there at All In—even though Mercedes was not signed to AEW and was still talking with WWE.
“Then I saw Tony backstage, and he was SO excited to have me there. So excited, in fact, that he wanted me to do a backstage segment with… WILLOW! I was like—WOWOWOWOW. WAIT! I am NOT signed. I do NOT work here. I’m just here to enjoy the show!”
That’s the crazy part. Years before Willow and Mercedes were set to fight over the AEW Women’s World Championship, Tony was already looking at putting them together on camera. Mercedes didn’t bite that night. She wanted to enjoy the show like an actual fan for once.
“Backstage, I got to see so many familiar faces—Amanda Huber, Renee, Rusev—and I got to meet so many new people too. Then I was escorted to my box seats, and for once… I got to be a FAN. Do you understand how rare that is for me?”
She even joked that there was one other time she managed to blend into a wrestling crowd—when she went undercover to support Bayley at WrestleMania. For Mercedes, Wembley was a night where she didn’t have to worry about a match, an entrance or what came next. And AEW clearly left an impression.
“I never really got the opportunity to sit in the crowd and just be a fan at WrestleMania. Okay… MAYBE there was one time I went in disguise for Bayley’s match. But that’s another story.”
“This time, I could actually sit there. No match to prepare for. No entrance to think about. No pressure. Just Moné and more than 80,000 screaming wrestling fans celebrating the thing I love most in this entire world.”
“From the way I was treated to the moment I arrived at Wembley, I remember thinking: Wait… I Love this!”
Fast-forward to 2026 and that Willow Nightingale idea Tony Khan had backstage isn’t some random pitch anymore. Mercedes is now challenging Willow for the AEW Women’s World Championship at All In, turning a segment that never happened in 2023 into one of the biggest matches on the card. Mercedes also picked up a win over Zayda Steel on the August 15 episode of AEW Collision as she heads into the title fight.
What do you think about Tony Khan trying to put Mercedes Moné with Willow Nightingale before Mercedes had even signed with AEW? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
