The IWGP Women’s Champion was the focus of a Q&A session.
For a month, Mercedes Moné has been reigning as IWGP Women’s Champion. She’s confirmed that her next title defense is scheduled for April 8th at New Japan Pro-Wrestling Sakura Genesis.
Her title win at NJPW Battle in the Valley was her first match since May 2022. It was almost a full year ago that Mercedes and Trinity Fatu (Naomi), then WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, walked out of the company prior to Monday Night Raw.
As Moné was answering questions at Planet Comicon in Kansas City (video courtesy of COOLTOY), the situation involving herself, Trinity and WWE was brought up in addition to there being a thought that she would come back to WWE. She stated that no one knows the true story. She is not going to speak on it and added that for those talents who wanted to return to WWE, that’s great for them but what she is doing present day is her dream.
First of all, nobody knows the story (of what happened between myself, Naomi & WWE), you don’t know the story. But you’re reading whatever you wanna read and believing whatever you wanna believe. Nobody knows the story because I haven’t said anything, and I’m not going to say anything because that’s just the classy boss that I am, the CEO. But one thing, it’s up to them, it’s up to Dakota (Kai), it’s up to everybody else to come back, that’s awesome. That’s their dream, but I went after mine which was going to Japan. You have to follow your heart and follow your soul and follow your dreams and this was always, always, always a dream of mine that I never got to accomplish. So as I’m growing in my career, I’d been in the WWE for almost 10 years, I had to have a change, I had to feel something different in my heart and my soul so I had to go after a whole new dream and a whole new chapter and a whole new destiny for me and this is what I wanted for me and this is what I wanted to make happen for me so, that’s it. This is what I’m going for, this is my dream.
The topic of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II was mentioned to Moné and she was asked if she would be there. She was not aware of the date but said she could be open and would just have to get the phone call.
Ooh, when is it (AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door)? Is it June? June or July? Okay. What day? I don’t know when the show is. Anybody know the date? I don’t know, we gotta see then. June’s so far. I think I could be open, July might be open but, gotta get that phone call. Gotta get that phone call from unc.
One of the questions asked was if Mercedes were to return to WWE, who would she like to face. She spoke highly of NXT’s Zoey Stark, stated that she’s not done with Bayley and would like to have an Iron Woman match with Natalya.
There’s actually a lot, because there’s a lot of good talent (I would want to work with if I went back to WWE). I really like Zoey Stark in NXT. I think she is super, super, talented and just amazing. I think she is just ready to blast off and shine and given the opportunity, I would love to just see her on a Raw and SmackDown. Of course my girl Bayley, I’m not done with her yet. I love her, I think she’s amazing and Natalya, she’s one of my favorites and I feel like I never really got the opportunity to have a long match with her. I would love to have an Iron Woman match with her… Yeah, hell yeah. I used to train with her and we would just train for an hour non-stop, just calling so I just know that me and her… we would have an incredible Iron Woman match. I would say her, Natalya.
STARDOM’s AZM and Hazuki have expressed their desire to challenge for the IWGP Women’s Championship. On April 23rd, Mayu Iwatani is challenging for the IWGP Women’s Title.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the original source with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
