AEW is ringing in the new year with a brand new TBS Champion. On AEW Dynamite, Mercedes Mone — who has held the title for over a year — defended against Willow Nightingale.
Mone has collected titles all around the world in 2025 and is in the next phase of her arc. Things began with the TBS Championship when she defeated Nightingale in 2024, so it was only fitting for her to be the one to dethrone Mone. She’s on a downward spiral, refusing to believe she’s losing matches. But everything that’s up must come down eventually, including her historic title reign. She is now the longest-reigning TBS Champion at 584 days.
The TBS Championship was Nightingale’s first AEW Championship. She signed in 2022 and by 2023, she became a beloved babyface. As it stands, she is pulling double-duty as one-half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions and the new TBS Champion. It’ll be interesting how AEW balances her workload out, considering she and Harley Quinn are the inaugural Tag Champions. For now, we’ll have to sit back and see how it all pans out.
Willow Nightingale on restoring faith in herself
Nightingale recently reflected on her year, crediting joining The Conglomeration for her restored confidence. “There were points in this year where I felt like maybe I was losing a little bit of faith in myself, from time to time,” she said during the AEW Worlds End media scrum [H/T: Wrestling Inc]. “When I felt alone, I was always able to come to work and was able to look around and find people that were cheering for me, or rooting for me, or lifting my spirit when I felt like I couldn’t do it myself. That’s looking at The Conglomeration, that’s looking at, you know, I went to Anarchy in the Arena with awesome tag partners. I found Harley, and now I have her.”
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