Mercedes Moné, formerly known as Sasha Banks, opens up about leaving WWE.
Moné walked out of WWE alongside Naomi in May 2022. She then had a brief run in NJPW before she signed with AEW. Moné has become one of AEW’s top stars, and she now holds the TBS Championship and the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship.
Speaking on HOT 97, Mercedes Moné was asked whether there was a moment when she wanted to quit wrestling because it was too hard. She brought up leaving WWE and what she dealt with in the aftermath of the move.
“Only within the last two years, when I was going through leaving WWE,” Mercedes Moné said. “I’m like, should I be done with wrestling? Because this is not fun for me. All this noise is not fun, and then I was like no, you love this. It’s not the noise, it’s the noise in the ring, it’s the noise when you perform, it’s the noise when you go out there with the crowd. It’s not this Internet noise, it’s not the politics. You can work through that. There’s gonna be politics everywhere, and it’s how you work through that.
“It’s really how I grew from a ‘Legit Boss’ to a CEO. I wanted to be a CEO of my own life, I wanted to take control of my life and my career, so two years ago, I was really questioning myself, if I should still do this. I was like, no, you’re amazing. You still have so much more to give and do that you can’t quit on your dreams now.
Mercedes Moné On Taking Control Of Her Life
Mercedes Moné was then asked to describe the reasonings for her decision to leave WWE. She noted that something did not feel right on her last day, and the way they were talked to did not settle in her heart.
“There’s so many reasonings,” Mercedes Moné said. “The biggest thing was just listening to my heart and my soul. Something didn’t feel right that day, how we were talked to didn’t settle in my heart, and I just instantly knew, if I wasn’t gonna take control of my life right here and now, then I was never going to be happy there by having someone talk to me the way that they do or feeling like you just don’t belong. Like okay, I’ve been doing this for 14 years, and to feel like this, this low, my soul is like no, get up, go. It was the hardest decision.
“WWE was always my dream when I was 10 years old, so to be with that company for 10 years and to walk out was the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my whole life, but it’s now the greatest decision I’ve ever made because where I am today, the TBS Champion, the highest-paid woman in women’s wrestling history, thank you Tony [Khan], thank you AEW. I could just go on and on of all these amazing opportunities that have happened since I listened to my heart and just walked out. I walked out of that door, and I walked into so many more doors that were open for me. So it’s a beautiful thing.”
Moné went on to say that she felt the greatest that had ever felt now, following the journey she had taken over the past two years.
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