When Mercedes Moné, AEW’s TBS Champion, added the PTW Women’s and Bestya Women’s Championships to her collection, becoming 8 Belts Moné, the CEO has set another record for women’s wrestling.
Moné is not the first female belt collector. Previously, Viva Van held seven belts simultaneously. However, Moné has now surpassed Van. Who knows which other belts she will acquire? Or will Moné break Ultimo Dragon’s all-time record?
Many fans are thrilled for Moné. Others are apathetic or dismissive of Moné, her wrestling skills, and achievement/s. It’s nothing new. Mone has received plenty of hate and accusations since she left WWE and joined AEW. Part of it is tribal, but not exclusively.
Becky Lynch has also been compared to Hulk Hogan for consistently winning and having supposed creative control. In contrast to others, Moné’s language can often be more personal. Unlike the former Becky 2 Belts, it sometimes reads as if the commenters have an intimate knowledge of Moné. As if Moné personally wronged them.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen friends and fans who I know are caring, intelligent, empathetic people write and share these certain ugly “truths” about Moné. That Moné is selfish and egotistical. She is an awful person. She’s political.
That last bit is right.
Mercedes Moné’s belt collector run is political. The issue repeatedly is that some fans, through ignorance or selectivity or something else, are twisting the reality that wrestling is inherently political.
Politics of an Attraction
Politics is the process of coordination, discussion, agreement, and action between individuals within and between organisations working together to improve their individual and collective status and power. Wrestling is hierarchical but co-operative.
Politically, wrestlers need to conform to the company’s expectations and environment to be elevated. John Cena redefined what it meant to be the face of the company in WWE. Former WWE wrestlers who could not work within AEW’s framework or vision struggled and left.
Moné has a cross-media presence and a significant wrestling legacy. Moné’s reputation, career in and outside of wrestling, and history put value on her. Compared to those like Swerve Strickland and “Timeless” Toni Storm, Moné did not have to make herself undeniable. Yet, unlike them, she has not captured the world championship.
Moné wasn’t the first former WWE departure to be treated by AEW and its PR team like a special attraction. Look at Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, and Saraya (at first), etc. Like the former two, Moné is treated as special, meaning she rarely loses.
Has Moné been a needle-mover in ratings and attendance? Most straightforward surface answer, no. Moné was not an instant game-changer? No. To suggest, through the prism of fantasy booking logic, that Moné should have lost and put someone else over sooner because of this ignores how time and booking can/did change the tide.
AEW is making record revenue again this year. To deny that Moné vs. Storm, and Moné’s winning streak and belt collection, didn’t contribute to AEW’s biggest domestic gate is a choice.
Can’t Wrestle>
The rhetoric suggesting she should lose more often or sooner ignores the logic of maintaining a star’s status or ignores that Moné has found form.
At first, Moné, due to the AEW framework, was exposed as a WWE caricature on the microphone and in the ring. Moné had to adjust. Unlike another former Women’s Revolution stalwart, Saraya, Moné adapted. Since last year’s Forbidden Door match with Stephanie Vaquer, the idea that Moné’s opponents carry her matches ignores two things besides regaining form.
First, “floaties” in AEW quickly get exposed. See the booking of like Jade Cargill and Hook. Even if the booking protected Moné to maintain some illusion of mystique and value, isn’t that good business/smart booking? It was fine for Sting.
Moné lost her undefeated streak at All In. Elsewhere, former NJPW champion Kazuchika Okada retained his. The belt collector gimmick helps Moné generate buzz and more. A way to distract from the first loss and instead make us question when the next one will happen. Again, clever booking?
This revisionism buries how, for years, many felt Moné was unappreciated and undervalued despite multiple WWE women’s champion reigns and main-eventing WrestleMania. It presents a straightforward narrative that the craft-conscious, perfectionist wrestlers and passionate fangirls we glimpsed on documentaries or interviews have changed for the worse.
It’s an attractive, easy story.
This is despite her WWE exit and actions since aligning with Moné’s past comments about wrestling across the world. It’s another instance of fans using mental gymnastics, Orwellian doublethink. Here are some more examples.
Belt Collector Lore
Mercedes Moné has, at the very least, perceived value that makes international companies, big and small, want her to work for them and hold her championships. If she is conning them, they’ll have evidence from their profit and loss report spreadsheets.
As a belt collector, the goal-post moving criticisms continue to be contradictory. Mercedes Moné devalues herself by holding independent companies’ championships that some write as valueless, which smells of elitism. It also contrasts with the supposed egotistical diva-ish narrative.
Another point is that Moné’s absences and lack of defenses will hurt those companies, showing a lack of product knowledge. Take Moné’s CMLL World Women’s Championship. Zeuxis defended the championship twice in nine months before losing to Moné. Moné, with one defence in less than 50 days, is already halfway to equaling Stephanie Vaquer’s 285-day reign for title defenses.
Reading one commentator saying Moné’s belts lack the prestige of the belt collector originator, Ultimo Dragon’s, is again revisionism. @Gutsdozer’s informative Gorgonian knot cutting video highlights a history of confused and dubious lineages and belts used without permission or recognition from their namesake companies. The eight fused into the J-Crown were collectively stronger than the sum of their parts.
Ignored is how Moné’s reign proves her desire to work the indies and wrestle worldwide, and to give back. Something that many male fans are neglecting, despite what female fans and wrestlers say, which contradicts them. It’s that other part of the hate: misogyny, and it’s not tribalism as I’ve covered with AEW.
Ironically, taking away these promotions’ championship offers is not just a business decision.
Giving Back
A generation of women, fans, and wrestlers grew up idolizing Moné. Whether it was the girl sitting in front of me at All In doing the CEO dance, or wrestlers like WWE ID’s Zayda Steel, who became a wrestler because of Sasha Banks, Moné’s travels, victories, and defences are having a double impact.
Twice in six months, Moné has defended her Rev Pro Undisputed British Women’s Championship twice, encouraging fans to see independent wrestling. Some for the first time. For Moné’s opponents, they aren’t complaining. Take Moné’s Betsya Wrestling opponent:
“Some matches go beyond wrestling. Diana Strong stepped into that ring to face her lifelong idol, Mercedes Moné. The match of her life. A once-in-a-lifetime shot.
At the end, she broke into tears. Not for the loss. Not for the exhaustion. But because a dream comes true hits you deep inside.
In that exact moment, everyone watching knew this was more than just a show.
This is the power of real sports. This is what raw emotion looks like.
Respect. Always.” Diana Strong, transcribe and translation from Fightful.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – AEW – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on Mercedes Moné, AEW, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8 pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content available on their YouTube
