One of AEW’s biggest All In plans apparently didn’t survive the trip to Wembley. Willow Nightingale and Mercedes Moné were always on a collision course, but a new backstage update claims AEW changed one major detail that completely reshaped the Women’s World Championship match.
According to Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the original plan had Moné walking into Wembley Stadium as AEW Women’s World Champion, with Willow Nightingale trying to take the title from her. Somewhere along the way, that changed.
“The original Wembley was this match switched. The original Wembley was Mercedes as champion vs. Willow. So his plan was Mercedes being champion at All In.”
That completely flips the story coming out of AEW Redemption. Willow beating Thekla for the Women’s World Championship looked like the company finally pulling the trigger on a long-awaited title run. Instead, Meltzer says the title wasn’t originally supposed to be around Willow’s waist at all.
What’s interesting is that the match itself apparently never changed. We had reported after Redemption that AEW had been building toward Mercedes Moné vs. Willow Nightingale for months. The destination stayed exactly the same. The only thing that changed was who’d be carrying the championship into the biggest show of the year.
Now Mercedes watching from her luxury suite before Willow’s match suddenly makes a lot more sense. AEW was telling fans where the story was headed. They just weren’t telling them that the plan had already been rewritten.
Instead of Mercedes defending the AEW Women’s World Championship at Wembley, she’ll now be trying to win it back from the woman she was originally supposed to face as champion.
Do you like AEW’s new direction better, or would you rather have seen Mercedes Moné walk into All In as champion? Let us know in the comments below.
