When Sasha Banks walked out on WWE last May, it was a bombshell that took some time to fully absorb. This was a wrestler at the height of her powers, a champion (who left her tag team title behind when she walked) who was starting to cross over to the mainstream as well.
Surely, the thinking went, Banks would find a way to circle back to WWE — especially once Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over creative. And if not there, then AEW, right?
Not quite. Now known as Mercedes Moné, her next move once becoming a free agent was to show up at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s biggest event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo. Moné challenged the inaugural IWGP Women’s Champion, Kairi, to a title match at Battle in the Valley in San Jose, a match that’s finally almost upon us.
As Moné told host Phil Strum on the latest episode of the Under the Ring podcast, it didn’t require a ton of soul searching for her to decide it was the right place for her to be.
“This is such a huge honor for me,” Moné said. “It made it a really easy decision to go to New Japan to help kickstart this women’s division for this company. With New Japan being the biggest professional wrestling company in Japan, it was just an easy, easy decision being like, ‘this is the place I wanted to be.’
“I grew up watching New Japan, I grew up watching Pro Wrestling NOAH and all these Japanese women’s wrestlers growing up, so this was such an easy decision. It’s a dream come true for me.”
While NJPW’s women’s division is indeed only in its infancy, all-women’s sister promotion Stardom feels like it’s very much on the rise in terms of its worldwide profile. Part of what attracted Moné to New Japan was the opportunity to work some dates in Stardom as well, which she called one of “the greatest potential companies in the world right now.”
“They have some of the top, top, top wrestlers I have ever seen, and I’m just so excited to introduce the American audience to the style of Stardom women,” Moné said. “I think just giving them the opportunity to show what they can do to a global scale of audience is just going to open up the doors for women’s wrestling all over the world.”
You can listen to Moné’s entire interview on Under the Ring above. Her journey with NJPW and Stardom begin in earnest this Saturday night at Battle in the Valley in San Jose, which is being carried live on pay-per-view by FITE.
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