Mercedes Moné reflects on her decision to walk out on WWE in 2022.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Mercedes Moné was a recent guest on The Sackhoff Show. When asked about the night she decided to walk out on WWE after everything she did there, Moné admitted it was the hardest thing she’s ever done in her life.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life,” Mercedes Moné admitted. “The scariest and the most strangest feeling of months not knowing where I wanted to be and who was I? I was so confused of who’s Mercedes and who’s Mercedes without this character as Sasha Banks, and without this company helping her push this way.
“It took a long time and months and months and months of healing and really figuring out, okay, Mercedes, you’re not going to play Sasha Banks forever. I never owned that character, and I had to say goodbye to really believing and knowing that this is a possibility that I will never come back, and I will never play this character again, or these fans will never see this character again, and I will never get to wrestle these women again or work with these men again.
“It was such a long, hard decision that I had to sit with myself and be okay with and it was just my spiritual guides, a light in me that said, okay, Mercedes, you can’t go back. You got to go forward. And these words just kept on being in my head, don’t go back, go forward. And I’m still like, okay, what does that mean? Because they’re offering me another contract. They’re offering me to come back. Can I go back and still go forward?
“And this, this voice said, don’t go back, go forward. You’ve got to create something. And then the voice in my head was creating different names for myself. I kept writing down different lists of new names that I wanted for myself, and I kept saying, Mercedes, what do you want and what are you not getting? Like I want money, and what am I not getting? Money. And what’s not happening? Money.
“So Mercedes Moné just started to come, and then more light just coming into my soul, and things started to click and AEW was around. It started in 2019, so I always heard the buzz of this company, but I was talking to Tony Khan throughout this time, and it still just didn’t feel right. Our connection yet. But my biggest dream before even WWE was to always wrestle in Japan. So New Japan and I kind of had this little test run right when I left WWE to really see if wrestling was still something that I wanted and still something that I still had so much dreams for.”
Mercedes Moné almost walked away from wrestling completely
When asked if she thought about walking away from wrestling completely, Moné admitted that she did.
“I did because of how hurt I was by it. And how much it drove me into a place of darkness,” Mercedes Moné said. “I couldn’t believe something that brought me so much light in my life that saved me so many times when I was a kid, brought me so much darkness.
“I was just like, I don’t want to feel like this. And I don’t want to have so much stress where I’m legit killing myself because of all the stress that I’m creating or the sadness that I’m bringing to myself because of this bad mental, you know, constant mental talk in my head. So there’s a lot of healing and I told myself no, this is still what I freaking love.
“I love wrestling. I still have the same goal of when I was 10 years old. And no one’s going to take that away. And I felt like at this time, maybe they want to see me gone forever. Maybe people want to see me disappear, and I’m like I can’t I can’t give that to people. I can’t give up on myself, and I can’t give up on my dream. I still have so much light and passion for this and such a chase and a drive that, again, my light and my god, told me you got to keep on going.
“So here’s New Japan. Take your bags, go to Japan, and go make when your dreams happen. And that happened. Then more bugs of dreams just kept on coming and coming, and then more talks with AEW happened. Then the connection just kind of realigned, and it was just finally perfect until I signed the contract with AEW. And it felt so right because I knew I can create so much more new dreams and memories and magic for women’s wrestling.”
READ MORE: Mercedes Moné Reveals The One Thing She Wished Wrestling Fans Knew About Her
What do you make of Mercedes Moné’s comments? How did you feel when she walked out on WWE back in 2022? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use these quotes, please credit The Sackhoff Show with a link to this article for the transcription.
