Why AEW Didn’t Advertise Mercedes Mone’s WrestleDream Match

Mercedes Mone took on Mina Shirakawa at AEW WrestleDream 2025 in a Winner Takes All match for the AEW TBS Championship and Interim ROH Women’s World Television Championship. She walked out of the match with her 11th championship belt.

Weeks before the WrestleDream PPV, AEW had already started advertising the show’s match card. But Mone’s singles championship bout was added a day before the event on Friday.

On Friday night, Mercedes Mone beat Persephone in Mexico City to retain the CMLL Women’s Championship. After the match, she cut a promo stating that she would put her TBS Championship on the line against any champion at AEW WrestleDream on Saturday, October 11, and the challenge was answered by Mina Shirakawa.

Tony Khan Wanted Mercedes Mone To Break the Ultimo Dragon Record at WrestleDream

Mone’s WrestleDream match felt like a random, last-minute addition to the PPV match card. Wrestling Observer recently provided the real reason why AEW opted to add Mone’s WrestleDream match so close to the event in its latest report.

According to the report, AEW wanted Mercedes Mone to break the record held by Ultimo Dragon (the most championships held simultaneously by a professional wrestler) at the WrestleDream 2025 event.

If AEW had announced her match too early (before late Friday night), that would have spoiled the result of her previous match, i.e., her CMLL Women’s Title match against Persephone. If AEW had advertised Mone as appearing with her title at WrestleDream, fans would know she didn’t lose the belt against Persephone in Mexico.

Therefore, Tony Khan wanted to surprise fans with Mercedes Moné breaking a record, but he also didn’t want to spoil the outcome of her previous match in Mexico. To protect the surprise and avoid spoilers, they announced her match very late.

The report also noted that while WWE doesn’t worry about spoiling results from outside promotions, AEW tries to avoid giving away spoilers for other promotions’ shows.

Make TJR Wrestling your choice for news by clicking here.