Mercedes Mone speaks ahead of her AEW in-ring debut.
Mercedes Mone hasn't wrestled since May 21, 2023 at NJPW Resurgence when she suffered an ankle injury against Willow Nightingale. Mone officially joined AEW in March, debuting at AEW Dynamite Big Business. Over one year since her last match, and two months since her AEW debut, Mone will step into the ring at AEW Double or Nothing against Willow.
In a feature article by Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, it's noted that "She was medically cleared to wrestle in December and believes she’s in the best shape of her life for her AEW debut." Fightful Select has heard that isn't anywhere close to being the case, however.
Mone said Tony Khan wanted to delay things to “make sure that everything was lined up perfectly” for one of his three big free-agent signings this year, along with Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada.
Mone has posted videos of herself training dating back to November 2023. However, Fightful noted that many of those videos were actually archived.
“When I first started to train, just running ropes hurt and that scared me,” Moné said. “I’m like, ‘No way I’m going the path to feel this pain my whole life.’ Finally, it got better and little things stopped hurting and finally (Tyler) Breeze pushed me to do some of my moves that I was gonna do like double knees and going off the top rope. I hit them, so the fear was gone. Everything felt back to normal and I’m ready.”
Mone will challenge Willow Nightingale for the AEW TBS Championship at AEW Double or Nothing on May 26.
Fans can check out the currnet lineup for the show by clicking here.
