Mercedes Mone, formerly known as Sasha Banks during her tenure with WWE, has established herself as a prominent figure in the professional wrestling industry.
Mone and Naomi departed from WWE in May 2022. The duo walked out of an episode of Monday Night RAW due to creative differences with then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. At the time of their departure, they were both holding the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Naomi returned to WWE at the 2024 Royal Rumble pay-per-view event after a stint in TNA Wrestling. Mone has since moved on to AEW.
During a recent appearance on Hot 97, Mone spoke candidly about her departure from WWE in 2022 and her sentiments regarding this transition.
Mone said, ”There’s so many reasons, but the biggest thing is 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 going to take control of my life right here and now, then I was never going to be happy there, 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 this low, my soul was like, ‘No, get up, go.’
That’s a big decision, though. 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.”
Having achieved significant recognition in WWE as Sasha Banks, Mone underwent a name change following her tenure with the billion-dollar promotion.
The CEO of AEW also divulged the background behind her current wrestling persona. She stated,
“Then later on, when I was going through where I was going to be wrestling, I said, ‘Mercedes, what do you want the most?’ I said, ‘Money.’ ‘Mercedes, what are you not getting right now the most?’ I’m like, ‘Money.’ And I said, ‘What changes everything? Money.’ Yeah, so I said, ‘Mercedes Mone, that’s what we’re going to be, baby,’ and that’s exactly what I got. So when I tell you to manifest for what you want, go do it when the name change happens.”
Mone successfully defended her AEW TBS Championship and captured Stephanie Vaquer’s NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship in their Winner Takes All match at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door 2024.