Kris Statlander
As Timeless Toni Storm once put it: “What a woman.” Stat-Daddy may not have had many matches in May, but when she did, she made the best of them. She started strong with Hikaru Shida against Harley Cameron and Mina Shirakawa on the May 6 AEW Dynamite, continuing their awkward alliance. Their tag team tenure ran its course; however, come AEW Double or Nothing, the women split, and it was messy.
They clashed in the 4-way match involving Jamie Hayter and AEW Women’s World Champion Thekla. It started with Shida striking Statlander, shrugging it off. Stat, understandably ticked off, fired off. Ultimately, this led to a dissolution that proved their undoing: Hayter and Shida knocked each other out.
Thekla stomped Statlander out for the finish. But Statlander wasn’t done. In an overrun main event of the May 27 AEW Dynamite/Collision, Statlander beat Shida to a pulp in a Philly Street Fight. Fluorescent light tubes were involved! She looked strong to end the month, leaving June to be a path to a comeback for the former World Champion.
Willow Nightingale
We’ve got a bittersweet entry here, sports fans. Continuing her comeback killer run that started in April, Nightingale was on fire. On May 2, 2026, at AEW Collision, she sent the returning Anna Jay packing in an AEW TBS Championship match. Considering rumors are still swirling like a whirlpool regarding Jay’s contract status, this at least paved the way to a TayJay reunion with Tay Conti.
ROH’s Red Velvet challenged the following week on the 16th, and met the same fate in Maryland. Velvet is regularly featured on ROH but rarely pops up on AEW. Despite that, this match was physical and proved that her match with Mercedes Mone for the ROH TV Championship wasn’t solely due to the CEO’s big match style.
What’s heartbreaking about this is that Nightingale’s reign was going so well. It was this very match with Velvet where Nightingale injured her shoulder. She’d relinquish her TBS title and her spot in the Owen Hart Cup Tournament. A fantastic run cut all too short. Here’s to hoping for a speedy and confident recovery for the Babe with the Power.
