AEW Star Considered Retirement After WWE Exit

WWE/AEW

AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone has revealed that she considered walking away from the business after departing WWE.

The former Sasha Bank, alongside Naomi, left WWE in May 2022 and recently revealed that she didn’t like how she was “talked down to” by Vince McMahon.

Naomi has since returned to WWE with Banks being reborn as Mercedes Mone and signing with AEW in February 2024.

Speaking about her feelings after departing WWE on The Sackhoff Show, Mone revealed that she came close to walking away from wrestling.

Opening up about the hurt she was feeling, Mone talking about the darkness that engulfed her, confirming that she very nearly gave up, saying:

“I did. I did because of how hurt I was by it and how much it drove me into a place of darkness. I couldn’t believe something that brought me so much light in my life, that saved me so many times when I was a kid, brought me so much darkness.

“I was just like, I don’t want to feel like this, I don’t want to have so much stress where I’m legit killing myself because all of the stress that I’m creating or the sadness that I’m bringing to myself because of this bad mental talk my head.”

Mone would go on to say that she had to heal before she felt she could get on with what she loves, stating:

“So, just a lot of healing, just a lot of healing and I told myself no, this is still what I freaking love, I love wrestling and I still have the same goal of when I was 10 years old and no one’s going to take that away.

“I felt like at this time, maybe they want to see me gone forever, maybe people want to see me disappear. I’m like, I can’t give that to people, I can’t give up on myself and I can’t give up on my dream. I still have so much light and passion for this and such a chase and a drive. My light and my god told me, you’ve got to keep on going.

“So here’s New Japan, take your bags, go to Japan and go make one of your dreams happen. That happened and then just more dreams kept on coming and coming and then more talks with AEW happened and then the connection just kind of realigned and it was finally perfect until I signed a contract with AEW and it felt so right because I knew I could create so much more new dreams and memories for women’s wrestling.”

During the interview, The CEO would also reveal that she has a future ambition to become a shareholder in a wrestling company.

She would also reveal that she has an interest in adopting a backstage role, potentially as a producer or a coach.

Transcript from Fightful.