Tony Khan is running an angle right now where TBS Champion Willow Nightingale is beating AEW stars in their comeback match after they’ve been away for a while. Willow has thus far killed the AEW comebacks of Hikaru Shida, Queen Aminata, Kamille, Anna Jay.
A lot of fans are speculating about this story culminating in the return of a huge star like Britt Baker or Mercedes Mone. But before that happens, I’ve been scratching my head wondering where the f*** is Nyla Rose? The former AEW women’s world champion has not wrestled in Tony Khan’s AEW or ROH in over one full year. The data at Cagematch shows that Nyla has worked 15+ matches on the indies and elsewhere during this time, so it’s not like she’s been unable to work due to injury.
A recent glance at Nyla’s social media shows that she’s taken her talents to Japan this month. For example, here she is busting out the Insano Driver en route to winning the AAAW Tag Team Championship at the Marvelous promotions’ 10th Anniversary Commemorative Event.
Nyla has also spotted strange billboards like this one during her travels in Japan, which shows that fans over there are always ahead of the curve.
Rose is sticking around in Japan for now; Marigold announced today that she is debuting for the promotion on May 23 at Shine Forever 2026 in an 8-woman tag team match. That’s the same promotion where WWE allowed IYO SKY to work a match against her former partner Mayu Iwatani last October.
Nyla promoted this week’s episode of Dynamite on her social media, so it’s not like she’s on the outs with AEW in that regard. Who knows, maybe Tony Khan will give The Native Beast a call to return to AEW Dynamite or Collision and lose to Nightingale right after she’s done working for Rossy Ogawa in Marigold.
Do you think Nyla Rose will soon return to AEW programming as part of Willow Nightingale’s comeback killer gimmick? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.