Willow Nightingale is one of independent wrestling’s most popular female talents and she feels extremely fortunate for her journey to the squared circle so far.
Bell To Belles’ Jacqui Pratt spoke with Nightingale after she took part in a live wrestling drive-in event – LVAC’s Reel Rumble Weekend at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater. The two talked about the unique experience but also touched upon some issues that have recently boiled up in the wrestling industry. A few quotes are below:
There are a couple of hot-button topics in wrestling that all overlap with one another. We have continual conversations about gender and race in wrestling. Then you tie in the recent Speaking Out movement that shed light on the abuse that is happening—and has been happening for a long time—in wrestling. So, what are some of the ways your journey in wrestling has been more difficult because of these uphill battles that we’re fighting?
“So personally, I feel very, very fortunate because I started in New York, [and] I had trainers that believed in me and backed me from the get. I never was treated any differently for being a woman, or for being a black woman at that. I think there were some odd comments here and there. I was learning how to do a body slam and somebody was like, ‘Get that ghetto booty on up there.’ And I was like, ‘First of all, I’m from the suburbs!” Obviously that’s [racially] charged because I’m a black woman, like why else would you say that?’”
“There’s all these little things that I’ve always brushed off because they seem very small and minute and not worth picking a fight over because in wrestling, there kind of is this hierarchy, whether you acknowledge it or not. The culture of this is your vet, you respect your vet; that’s always in the back of your head. And some things, I’m like, do I question this because I’m new, I’m the green person or do I speak up for myself as an individual? Am I taking this because I’m a woman? Am I taking this because I’m black? Am I taking this just because I’m new? Again, there’s so many ways that everything mixes in together; where is this coming from?”
“As I’ve grown, I’ve been wrestling for 5, almost 6 years since I started training, I definitely think I’ve been fortunate enough to be put in situations to succeed. I’ve had the opportunity to work with companies like the Let’s Hang Out shows with LVAC, I get to wrestle for Beyond wrestling, and I know Drew Cordeiro who runs Beyond is a strong advocate for women’s wrestling and intergender wrestling. He’s never held back a female performer because of their gender or their sexuality or anything like that. He just views you like a wrestler, and whatever your ability is, whether that be your athletic ability or your ability to connect with a crowd or to tell a story, whatever that is, whatever he sees in you, it’s in your heart. And that’s what he sees when he pushes you forward.”
What is the overlap of a locker room environment of inclusivity and these incidents of abuse?
“Like I said, for me personally, any situation I have been in like that has been so small in comparison to what I’ve heard from my friends or my peers who I might not even necessarily be close to, which really hurts a lot to be like, oh wow you’ve been through this experience, and I wasn’t there for you because I didn’t know. Obviously I know that these things happen but like that’s another big hit to everyone who is involved. It’s like, what can I do—what could I have done? And I think that that’s a question we need to ask personally to ourselves. How do we speak up when things are happening and not just after? Because, again, there are all those things in your head where you’re like ‘well, I’m just a newbie’ with those abuses of power.”
“I wish I had an answer because honestly, it’s hard to worry about your own career and the people who do have that power. I think everyone should reflect on [how] being a human is more important than being a professional wrestler. At the end of the day, I’m a human being; I’m gonna have to put my head on my pillow and go to sleep and be ok with the events that conspired on that day. Whereas professional wrestling will obviously not always be there for me. Even if I become a hugely successful wrestler, there’s an expiration date for that.”
Nightingale also took a moment to talk about AEW’s Deadly Draw Tournament and how she had hope for her and her tag partner, Solo Darling that they could get involved.
“When this whole AEW women’s tag team tournament happened, first of all, when AEW started, Solo and I were like how do we do this because they’re big on tag teams in general. Obviously, the foundation of the Young Bucks and constantly pushing and propelling tag team wrestling as a whole forward, we were like, we gotta get in on this, right? We’re doing the thing, we’re women, they need to build their women’s division.”
“So then when they announced the tournament, it was like, how do we do this? And then us looking at Twisted Sisters and Sea Stars, and we feel like we’re that Spider-Man meme where we are pointing at each other like, you feel the way we feel, right? But then it was like, oh well, it’s happening next week, and we haven’t heard from anyone, so this not happening.”
Happening next week, not happening on TV, and talked about on TV after it’s happened.
“At the end of the day, I want to see [the Deadly Draw] succeed, a part of it or not. That is huge for what I do in general, and if that’s elevated on that stage, it would be elevated where I am. It’s cool that, in a sense, they did get their own show and they have the time to put together their own matches. And even it being tucked away on YouTube, that’s cool because it’s accessible for everyone. But I DO wish there were more mention of it, especially on tag team appreciation night.”
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