Mercedes Monè opens up about leaving WWE and coming to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
The former Sasha Banks walked out of WWE during the May 16 episode of WWE RAW. She was absent from WWE for the next several months, leaving her status with the company unclear. Near the end of the year, she reportedly reached an agreement with NJPW, and the move was confirmed when she appeared at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17. There, she confronted IWGP Women’s Champion KAIRI and challenged her to a match at NJPW Battle in the Valley.
In an interview with NJPW’s website, Monè discussed her decision to leave WWE and make the jump to NJPW. She recalled how she learned about wrestling outside of WWE when she was younger, so wrestling in Japan became her top goal. Monè stated that she achieved everything she wanted to in WWE, and now she’s chasing her dreams with NJPW and STARDOM. She also emphasized her intent to cement her legacy.
“That’s what really showed me that it was possible to live this dream. Seeing Manami Toyota and Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, all these hard hitting matches, and it was like ‘wait, there are matches where women are outperforming and having better matches than the men?’ They were hitting just as hard as the men, having these 30 minute long five star matches. I was so amazed by them that Japan became my number one goal even before WWE. So I managed to achieve what I wanted to achieve in WWE, and now I get to live out this international dream.
“I’ve been saying ‘Moné makes the world go round’, and I mean that. I’m thrilled to start this in Japan, and with NJPW and STARDOM. STARDOM, to me, has the best women’s wrestlers in the world, and I really want to cement my legacy with my wrestling fans, to cement my name with the greatest of all time. I’m ready to f**king go.”
Monè then detailed how she has been working since she left WWE, as she has been busy with a number of projects. She made it clear that wrestling has been her main love, and she also described how she spent a month training in Mexico ahead of her return.
“I’ve been working every single day since I left there. I’ve been making movies, making TV shows, magazines, modelling, I haven’t stopped. But wrestling has always been my number one love, and there was no soul searching involved in coming back to wrestling. I went to Mexico for a month in October and lived there. I went to all different wrestling schools to learn from trainers that I had grown up watching; from Skayde to Ricky Marvin to Bandido, there are so many legends there to learn from.
“To train at that altitude as well, it gets you ready from a conditioning perspective so much faster as well. But yeah, I was ready in October, and I knew coming to Japan was exactly what I wanted. I was shooting a movie in between training in Mexico then, but I knew I was going to Japan to train in December whether it was doing something with New Japan or not. When it all came together with NJPW though for Wrestle Kingdom it was ‘wow, OK, this is really happening’. This has been a dream literally since I was a teenager.”
Looking back on her arrival at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17, Monè noted that it was “so big” for her. She stated that she feels great because she’s excited about wrestling again.
“It was so big for me. To see the crowd’s reactions to seeing those women wrestle, it was like ‘wow, I want that someday’,” Monè said. “To fast forward to this being my first moment in wrestling in 2023, and to make such a statement for evolving myself from being a boss to being a CEO. I’m so excited to be part of a group that’s so hungry. It’s a star in my heart, and it feels so great to be excited about wrestling again.”
Monè will challenge KAIRI for the IWGP Women’s Championship at NJPW Battle in the Valley on February 18.
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