{"id":141022,"date":"2025-08-30T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=141022"},"modified":"2025-09-16T12:47:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:47:28","slug":"mercedes-mone-why-fans-are-divided-over-her-role-in-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/08\/30\/mercedes-mone-why-fans-are-divided-over-her-role-in-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes Mone: Why Fans are Divided Over Her Role in Wrestling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since walking out of the WWE in 2022 due to creative frustrations, Sasha Banks has evolved into Mercedes Mone. A boss became a CEO<\/a>, and the entire pro wrestling industry was shaken up. Her first post-WWE appearance came at NJPW WrestleKingdom 17 in January 2023. <\/span><\/p>\n

She confronted the IWGP Women\u2019s Champion KAIRI and challenged her to a match for the title at Battle in the Valley. Mercedes would then go on to beat KAIRI, becoming the second-ever IWGP Women\u2019s Champion. She would ultimately drop the title to Mayu Iwatani after 64 days. <\/span>However, shortly after her NJPW\/Stardom contract ended, she signed with AEW. <\/span><\/p>\n

Quickly, Mone was put into a program with Willow Nightingale. Mone would defeat Nightingale at Double or Nothing in 2024, ending her TBS Championship reign at only 34 days. Since then, Mone has cemented herself as one of the top players in AEW\u2019s Women\u2019s Division, and fans are divided on whether or not this has come at a price.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fan Complaints<\/b><\/h2>\n

Fans have voiced many complaints about Mercedes since she joined AEW. At first, fans were skeptical about her in the company after many underwhelming performances. These performances were mainly due to Mercedes\u2019s lack of skills on the microphone. Many people have used her first promo in AEW and multiple backstage segments as justification. <\/span><\/p>\n

In her first few weeks, her promos fell flat, and didn\u2019t have the presence or liveliness they could\u2019ve. Additionally, fans also point out her first few matches in the company felt lackluster or didn\u2019t live up to the hype it was given. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mone\u2019s match against Britt Baker at All In 2024 is a prime example, where the match felt slow and awkward, and not what someone would expect from the buzz of the industry and the returning champion at the time. <\/span>On the other hand, many fans argue that Baker\u2019s ring rust following a nine-month absence and a fatigued Wembley Stadium crowd could\u2019ve played a part in the match\u2019s disappointing feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: AEW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mercedes Mone or Mercedes “Hogan”?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Another complaint is that Mercedes is overpushed by the company. Some believe that Mone takes away opportunities from other women on the roster by hogging the spotlight. Fans use her AEW record as one example. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the time of this article\u2019s publication, Mercedes has an impressive 26-4 win-loss record. With all 26 wins coming from singles matches, three tag team match losses, and only one singles loss courtesy of \u201cTimeless\u201d Toni Storm. Fans assume this is due to Mercedes being given creative control, after confirming it with TMZ in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

After beating Willow Nightingale for the TBS Championship, Mercedes Mone quickly became a <\/span>double<\/span><\/i> champion after defeating Stephanie Vaquer for the NJPW STRONG Women\u2019s Championship at Forbidden Door 2024. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, Mercedes has accumulated four more championships. First, she defeated Mina Shirakawa for the RevPro Undisputed British Women\u2019s Championship, then the CMLL World Women\u2019s Championship, and the EWA Women\u2019s Championship. She also won the Prime Time Women\u2019s Championship in Poland and simultaneously won the BestYa Women\u2019s Wrestling Championship. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most recently, she acquired the Discovery Wrestling Scottish Women\u2019s Championship, giving her a total of nine championships, if you count her Owen Hart Tournament win. <\/span><\/p>\n

Many fans feel like <\/span>Mercedes Mone holding all these belts is not a positive, but rather a negative. Online, fans have critiqued promoters for giving Mercedes more and more titles. Perhaps attributing to the \u201cmonopolization of professional wrestling,\u201d which some viewers speculate was an underlying theme during Mone\u2019s recent program with Toni Storm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fan Praise<\/b><\/h2>\n

Fans argue that putting these championships on Mercedes has actually led to positive outcomes. Examples include more eyes on other promotions, unknown or underrated female wrestlers getting spotlighted, and adding to the legitimization of women\u2019s wrestling. By carrying many belts and doing media outside of wrestling, Mercedes brings more intrigue to not only AEW, but CMLL, NJPW, RevPro, and other independent companies in Europe and the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another positive fan note is that Mercedes does not bury talent in the process of beating them. Instead, she elevates them. Unlike dominant champions such as Roman Reigns or Hulk Hogan, fans argue that women have shone since wrestling Mercedes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some women who reap this benefit are: Athena, Kris Statlander, Mina Shirakawa, and Stephanie Vaquer. Fans even speculate thatMone\u2019s <\/span>encounter with Vaquer at Forbidden Door helped Vaquer get signed by the WWE. Since then, both Vaquer and Mone have found much success in their respective companies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

There is no denying that promoters see Mercedes as a star, despite what fans think. Mone\u2019s accomplishments throughout her career speak for themselves, and there\u2019s no telling what other heights \u201cThe CEO\u201d may reach next. Currently, Mercedes is adamant about not going back to the WWE. She seems to be enjoying her time in AEW, as well as defending her championships around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For further reading, discover who could derail the CEOderail the CEO<\/a> and, potentially, end her reign.<\/em><\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 AEW \u2013 Stay tun<\/em>ed to the\u00a0Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a> for more on Mercedes Mone and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. <\/em>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.\u00a0 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\u00a0YouTube<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since walking out of the WWE in 2022 due to creative frustrations, Sasha Banks has evolved into Mercedes Mone. A boss became a CEO, and the entire pro wrestling industry was shaken up. Her first post-WWE appearance came at NJPW WrestleKingdom 17 in January 2023. She confronted the IWGP Women\u2019s Champion KAIRI and challenged her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5605,"featured_media":141031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,13,6976,6,2192,317,323],"tags":[5730,8521,159],"class_list":["post-141022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-international","category-joshi-international","category-north-america","category-wrestling","category-women","category-world-wonder-ring-stardom","tag-aew-dynamite","tag-mercedes-mone","tag-sasha-banks"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141022"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142070,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141022\/revisions\/142070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}