Rocky Romero says NJPW‘s door will be open to anyone in WWE who wants to walk away.
Mercedes Moné, formerly known as Sasha Banks, made her NJPW debut at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4, 2023, and her star power has generated plenty of buzz for the company. She left WWE at the end of 2022, and her run in Japan has prompted speculation about which other WWE stars could potentially follow suit.
Speaking on Comedy Store Wrestling, Romero was asked about Moné’s work with NJPW and whether it affected the company’s approach to free agency. He first noted that the company was hit hard by the pandemic, given its emphasis on touring, but they’re finally starting to get back on their feet.
“New Japan is in a weird spot because the pandemic hurt them because they’re a live event business more than anything,” Romero said. “There’s live events, and then there’s when you’re a TV company. So WWE, AEW, they focus on TV rights and they’re TV companies. New Japan has old-school TV rights. They’re kind of grandfathered in, they’re on one of the biggest channels in Japan. But more than anything, they’re a touring company, right, so they make their money mostly from touring.
“So [the] pandemic happened, touring went out the window. But it was important for the company to take care of their own, so nobody ever got fired, nobody got released. They made sure that everybody was taken care of, and everybody made it and survived. So now they’re just kind of starting to get back on their feet.”
Romero continued by noting that Moné was a big investment, and he stated that NJPW’s door will be open to anyone in WWE who gets “fed up” and wants to leave.
“I think Mercedes was a big investment, obviously, and going forward with that and going to see and test the waters, where they were in the [United] States and where they were worldwide when you take a big talent on like that, so I feel like now, we’re starting to feel comfortable again,” Romero said. “So I feel like now, yeah, long story is basically, yeah, if, because Vince [McMahon] is back, and there [are] people who are unhappy in WWE, there very well could be a possibility of somebody coming over and being fed up with it and just walking away, and New Japan’s door will be open if that does happen, for sure.”
Moné will compete in a one-night tournament to crown the inaugural NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship at NJPW Resurgence. More information is available here.
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