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Mercedes Mone Makes Rare Appearance Amid Lengthy AEW Hiatus

By Harikesh Shekhar • Published May 15, 2026 07:14 EDT
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Mercedes Mone on Dynamite, 29 January 2025 (Image via YouTube / @AEW)

Mercedes Mone has been missing from AEW TV for a while now and suddenly surfaced on the red carpet for a new film.

Mercedes Mone (f.k.a Sasha Banks in WWE) held 13 titles from AEW and different wrestling promotions across the globe in 2025. By April 2025, she had lost all of those titles, the last one being the APAC Women’s Championship, which was part of a Malaysian promotion. She had to vacate this title as talks with the promotion fell through.

Before her last appearance at AEW, she lost her TBS Championship at Dynamite: New Year’s Smash to Willow Nightingale, which ended her record-setting TBS Championship reign of 584 days. After Willow and the rest of The Power faction powerbombed Mone through a table during a celebration, the CEO of Women’s Wrestling swore to come back for revenge against these women and much more in an intense video package later on Collision.

She was then on her Mone Madness Europe tour and hasn’t been seen on TV since January. However, she was at the red carpet premiere recently for a major Hollywood film.

Mercedes Mone At The Red Carpet Premiere of “Mandalorian And Grogu”

Mercedes Mone was at the red carpet premiere for the upcoming Hollywood film The Mandalorian and Grogu, directed by “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau.

The film is a part of the Star Wars franchise and a continuation of the popular Disney show The Mandalorian, which was also part of Star Wars.

Mercedes Mone (Real name: Mercedes Varnado) portrayed the recurring character Koska Reeves in the second and third seasons of The Mandalorian series. Jon Favreau originally co-wrote season four of The Mandalorian series with Dave Filoni, but Hollywood labor disputes delayed the production, and Lucasfilm (George Lucas’ production house) decided to go for a film rather than a fourth season.

This connection to the popular film franchise meant that she was at the premiere for the new film. Pictures of Mone’s on the red carpet for the film’s premiere were shared on Mone’s official X account.

As for her in-ring return, fans will have to wait and see when the CEO of Wrestling will return to AEW, where she is still under contract.