The Reasons Mercedes Moné Rejected WWE For AEW

A confidant of Mercedes Moné has addressed why she felt it was right to sign with AEW instead of going back to WWE.

The official AEW debut of Mercedes Mone took place on AEW Dynamite from Boston in an episode called Big Business. Mone, who is from Boston, got a huge ovation from the crowd as soon as her catchy new “CEO” theme song hit.

During her promo on Dynamite to start the show, Mercedes Mone appeared to be very happy to be in AEW while talking about her past in WWE as Sasha Banks. Mone called herself a leader who was ready to help lead the women’s division in All Elite Wrestling.

At the end of the show, Mercedes Mone saved a victorious Willow Nightingale from a double team attack by TBS Champion Julia Hart and Skye Blue. The show started with Mone doing a promo and ended with Mone dancing to celebrate her start with a new company.

Joining Mone’s family in the front row at “Big Business” was Keven Undergaro, who is her advocate and Undergaro says that Mercedes is his client. When Undergaro solo-hosted Maria Menounos’ Heal Squad podcast, he spoke about initially meeting Mercedes thanks to a connection to her cousin, the legendary rapper and WWE Hall of Famer Snoop Dogg. Undergaro spoke about how Mercedes walked away from her WWE career in May 2022 and how she had to heal before moving on.

“That business (wrestling business) in many ways is worse (than show business) because it’s not like you have other directors you can work with or other studios you can work with or other networks that you can work with.”

“It’s one major ticket in town. At least there was for quite some time so, it was a very bold move and her (Mercedes Moné) cousin happens to be Snoop Dogg and she called Snoop for help and Snoop called a mutual friend of mine, of ours and who works with a lot of celebrities and their brands and she went to that friend for help and the friend was like, ‘I don’t know what to do with a wrestler but I know who’s crazy enough that probably does.’

And so, I told Mercedes, ‘Hey, I get what’s up. I know what happened, and why don’t you just start by coming to Connecticut to stay with Maria and I and let’s just decompress a little bit and see where you’re at mentally.’ These situations, you always have to work on the foundation or at least I do, before you rush to start making all the fixes and saves, and… it’s definitely been a marathon rather than a sprint and lots of seeds being planted in the last year-and-a-half, a lot of healing that took place.”

“A lot of things had to get fixed and yeah, I had to build up just even her foundation because you know, you can’t build a house on sand, people. So, whether it was her finances or taxes, all those aspects of her business, representation. Yeah, it was a lot, it’s been a lot.”

What Made Mercedes Mone Reject WWE To Sign With AEW Instead?

As Undergaro continued, he spoke about how it was more than just money that was a factor in going to AEW instead of returning to WWE. Undergaro also confirmed that WWE did reach out to bring back Mercedes Mone as Sasha Banks, which was reported in the past.

“A few months ago, we get a call from her old home saying they wanted her back and they put out a very generous offer, but the rival company that exists now also put out an offer and Mercedes (Moné) is really smart, she went with her gut and she felt the other offer was right and I agree with her.”

“It was just a hella lot more and not money necessarily but, opportunity, creative and mental health and one of the things I got to do was write her opening song and that was a lot of fun to do.”

Regarding what Mercedes Mone is getting paid by AEW, there is apparently at least one WWE women’s wrestler who believes Mone is now the highest-paid woman in wrestling.