Mercedes Moné has opened up about her 2022 exit from WWE, noting explicitly that among her reasons for leaving were her issues with Vince McMahon.
Just hours before AEW Grand Slam, Moné joined Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club for an interview. When the topic of her WWE exit came up, she mentioned that her issues with “The Chairman,” a position which McMahon held while she was in the company, was a big part of her departure.
“I left for many different reasons,” she told The Breakfast Club. “A lot of personal stuff happened with myself and the Chairman at the time. I didn’t like how he talked to me and how I was talked down to. I was like, ‘It’s time to legit listen to your soul and your heart.’ There was a light that came to me and I left WWE.”
She continued:
“It was enough for the source of my light to come into my body and go ‘If you stay, that’s not okay. This is for the rest of your life. What are you going to teach your kids? What are you going to teach people?’ If you’re feeling like this from words, after being here for ten years, you have to stand up for yourself.’ That’s what I did. The same light that came to me when I was 10 years old [when I got into wrestling] saying ‘This is your sole purpose this is what you’re going to do.’ Another light came to me being like ‘You gotta walk away and do something better for yourself.'”
Later in the interview, she was asked whether she would ever go back to WWE.
“After the way that AEW’s been treating me, I don’t know [if I’d go back to WWE],” she said. “I don’t think so. I feel like I have the best relationship with AEW right now and it’s legit, I’m living my dreams and it’s the best place I’ve ever been mentally and physically and to be able to have new dreams after being in the industry for 14 years, it’s the best feeling in the world so, AEW is my home right now.”
After a brief run in NJPW last year, Moné landed in AEW seven months ago. She currently holds the promotion’s TBS Championship, a title she first gained in May and has defended seven times since.
Andrew Thompson contributed to this report.