Willow Nightingale Is Proud Of Her Matches With Athena

Willow Nightingale has faced Athena a few times this year, and Nightingale says she’s proud of what they’ve done together. The two won alternating matches against each other in February and then July before competing for Athena’s ROH Women’s World Title at Death Before Dishonor, which saw the champion retain. Nightingale reflected on the matches while speaking with Denise Salcedo during a media scrum at Starrcast, saying that they exceeded her hopes even if she didn’t win Athena’s title.

“I think every time you are put into a big match like that, you hope that it will be something special,” Nightingale said (per Fightful). “The two times before that when Athena and I wrestled had been matches I was proud of. Whether I came out the victor or not, I was definitely proud of the matches I had with her.”

She continued, “Going in, you imagine that it’s going to be something special. Having it be in Trenton, New Jersey, I’m from Long Island, so that’s the tri-state. That’s where I was grinding and cutting my teeth on the indies, so having the crowd behind me like that, having my parents there, just the energy in the building, all of it together, [coupled with] being the first main event for a Ring Of Honor pay-per-view by two women, it was more special than I could’ve imagined. That is really saying something, considering I didn’t walk away with the championship at the end of that night. I was hurting, I was tired, I desperately needed to take a nap after, but I still had a smile on my face because even though I lost, I knew I laid it out and did my best.”