Mercedes Moné was deeply affected by the fan’s reaction after Saraya‘s neck injury in 2017.
The English star was forced to retire in April 2018. This was due to a neck injury, suffered following a kick from Mercedes Moné at a WWE house show.
Saraya spent four years on the sidelines before coming out of retirement. She debuted for AEW at Grand Slam 2022, setting up a feud with Britt Baker. Now, both women are in AEW together, with Mercedes Moné debuting earlier this year.
Thankfully, Saraya’s career wasn’t ended completely by the kick. However, Mercedes Moné suffered with depression following her retirement. This was due to the reaction of the fans blaming her for the injury.
Moné spoke with HOT 97 about how she felt. She revealed that she spiraled into depression, because her dream was to always be the best wrestler she could, and not hurt her friends.
“I was so depressed by it. I feel like when was that… in 2018 or 2017? That definitely set me on a spiral of depression because wrestling has always been my biggest goal and dream. I’ve always wanted to be the greatest at it, so to hear any kind of noise that people might not think you’re safe— it wasn’t even the boys in the back, it’s just the fans thinking you’re not safe. Yeah, um, it’s scary sometimes, but that’s the business that we’re in. You never know when you’re going to get hur. You never know when you’re going to sprain something, break a neck, break a knee. There’s just… it’s the business. You have to go out there knowing that you’re going to put your life on the line. We do everything we can to protect each other, and unfortunately, that happened.”
