With Mercedes Moné having debuted at AEW Dynamite: Big Business and officially become All Elite, there now comes plenty of details about how the CEO’s AEW arrival came about.
Via Fightful Select, whilst Moné’s AEW debut happened last night, the former Sasha Banks has actually been signed to the company for a little while. In fact, this report notes that Mercedes has been on the AEW payroll for “well over two months”, with the belief that a deal between the two parties may have been agreed upon back in December when the star filed several trademarks related to her name.
While it’s yet to be confirmed, the understanding is that Mercedes Moné has signed a multi-year deal contract that also factors in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. By that, as of January, NJPW was under the impression they’d be able to continue working with Mercedes in a significant way, with the company hopeful of picking things up with Moné from where they were left last year. Clearly, though, AEW is the Blueprint’s priority.
As for Mercedes’ ankle injury suffered last May, that required two operations and it was made clear during AEW negotiations that she wasn’t ready to return to the ring. Moné’s appearance at All In at Wembley Stadium in August was done with the expectation that AEW and Mercedes would work together at some point. Tony Khan didn’t want Mercedes Moné to appear on AEW TV whilst in a walking boot or on crutches, for he didn’t want to raise fans hope that she’d be able to wrestle – which is something that’s bizarrely been the case for Adam Cole in recent months.
For those wondering about any WWE involvement, Mercedes did have talks with the market leader about returning to the fold, but those discussions had seemingly ended by the turn of the year. The conversations with WWE are said to have been friendly, with the organisation wishing her will and of the understanding that Moné would be signing with another company “imminently”.
In terms of AEW, there were some talks about debuting Mercedes Moné as early as the 3 or 10 January editions of Dynamite, but the Boss simply was nowhere near close to being cleared at that period. If Moné was able to wrestle at that point, New Japan would’ve used her for both Wrestle Kingdom 18 and Battle in the Valley.
