Through her brief return runs, Trish Stratus got some of the biggest matchups possible on the WWE women’s roster. Most notably, she went up against Becky Lynch in a lengthy rivalry and also shared the ring at the 2019 Summerslam with Charlotte Flair.
But one of the most notable women’s talents who emerged from WWE’s 2010s didn’t ever meet Stratus in the ring: Sasha Banks, now known as Mercedes Moné.
Moné and Stratus worked alongside each other once as part of a 10-woman tag match on a 2018 episode of Raw, and they appeared in the same Royal Rumble earlier that year. But apart from those brief encounters, they never brushed shoulders in the WWE ring.
Stratus recently explained to Sports Illustrated that the timelines of her and Moné just didn’t match. Stratus thinks many believed she would only come back for a few quick return matches when she ended her long time away from action in 2018. And by 2023, when Stratus had her much lengthier in-ring run, Moné had left WWE.
“I think it didn’t come because I really think people never thought I’d ever come back for another match,” Stratus explained to Sports Illustrated’s Rick Ucchino. “After the Royal Rumble, it was a little sizzle real so to speak, of Trish Stratus and Stratusfaction, which was not easy to pull off, but you know, like alright. ‘You still got it,’ whatever. The thing of like ‘Can she come back after how many years to do a match?’ Like 17 years after my retirement, whatever the crazy number is, which is wild. But then she [Moné] left, so.”
Stratus, when asked about a potential crossover match against Moné in AEW, was dismissive of the idea. “Nope … I really am a WWE girl,” she explained. But the legendary wrestler didn’t want to totally shut down the possibility of the two meeting, mentioning “But who knows? There’s still so much more life to be had.”
You can watch the full 14-minute conversation with Stratus here.
