Merceds Mone Weighs In On Her NJPW Debut, Talks Heading to Japan After WWE

Mercedes Mone made a splash in her NJPW debut at Wrestle Kingdom 17, and she recently opened up about the appearance, heading to Japan after WWE and more. Mone spoke with NJPW for a new interview ahead of her match with KAIRI at Battle in the Valley next month, and you can see some highlights below:

On her NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom: “I’m still trying to recover from it all (laughs). It takes a while to recover after you come back from Japan, an I’m still getting tagged in all these Wrestle Kingdom pictures, still seeing so many people’s reactions about what happened. It was two weeks ago but I’m still taking it in.”

On whether she’s watched it back yet: “No, I still haven’t! I still haven’t had the chance to, but it’s still taking time to feel real, because it’s been such a dream of mine. Not only to perform and wrestle in Japan, but to be in the Tokyo Dome. When I was 12, 13 I used to watch All Japan Women’s wrestling, and I used to see those matches in the Tokyo Dome… It was so big for me. To see the crowd’s reactions to seeing those women wrestle, it was like ‘wow, I want that someday’. To fast forward to this being my first moment in wrestling in 2023, and to make such a statement for evolving myself from being a boss to being a CEO. I’m so excited to be part of a group that’s so hungry. It’s a star in my heart, and it feels so great to be excited about wrestling again.”

On making an impact in NJPW: “Personally, I always knew I was going to make an impact here. But it’s cool to see how quick it was, the turnaround to go from another name and character I’ve done for ten years to now be Mercedes Moné, and to see that instantly trend… just people obviously caring and wanting to see my match with KAIRI was cool. For it to sell out with that match being the only thing announced at that time was amazing. I know my fans always love and support me, so I knew it was going to do well, but it was kind of a shock to see how quickly it went that well.”

On heading to Japan after WWE: “I’ve been working every single day since I left there. I’ve been making movies, making TV shows, magazines, modelling, I haven’t stopped. But wrestling has always been my number one love, and there was no soul searching involved in coming back to wrestling. I went to Mexico for a month in October and lived there… I went to all different wrestling schools to learn from trainers that I had grown up watching; from Skayde to Ricky Marvin to Bandido, there are so many legends there to learn from. To train at that altitude as well, it gets you ready from a conditioning perspective so much faster as well. But yeah, I was ready in October, and I knew coming to Japan was exactly what I wanted. I was shooting a movie in between training in Mexico then, but I knew I was going to Japan to train in December whether it was doing something with New Japan or not. When it all came together with NJPW though for Wrestle Kingdom it was ‘wow, OK, this is really happening’. This has been a dream literally since I was a teenager.”

On the locker room reaction at Wrestle Kingdom: “Meeting the staff and the women at Wrestle Kingdom, there was a lot of respect and acceptance right off the bat. That meant so much to me. I met a few of the STARDOM wrestlers already from coming to Japan and training with them- I always try to hop around a lot of dojos and learn from a lot of people when I’m there. I feel like doing that earns some respect I hope- I can only show the respect that I have for them, and the passion that they have for wrestling is the same that I do. I’m, not nervous, I’m excited to earn more respect from the fans and the other Japanese women. But then, if I don’t get it, hey, I’m the ‘CEO’ not them, so it doesn’t really matter (laughs).”