AEW Star Confirms Talks With WWE Prior To All In London Cameo

Published: 15 minutes ago by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: 3 seconds ago by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

AEW Star Confirms Talks With WWE Prior To All In London Cameo

Prior to signing with Tony Khan, an AEW star has revealed that they were in talks with WWE before appearing at All In: London.

In August 2023, Mone made an on-screen appearance as a member of the audience at AEW All In, which took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

The appearance would lead to the star signing with AEW in February of the following year, but conversations had seemingly been in place with AEW prior to All In.

Having parted ways with WWE in May 2022, the former Sasha Banks would reveal that talks for a return had taken place in her recent Mone Mag, writing:

“Let me take you all the way back to 2023. At the time, I was still going back and forth in talks with WWE when I got an invitation to go to All In London. Now, you guys know me. I LOVE professional wrestling. So there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to miss the opportunity to witness something this big—a wrestling show of this magnitude, outside of WWE, at Wembley Stadium. I love history. I love being around history, and even more than that, I love being a part of it. The second I got to London, something just felt different. The energy was right.”

Despite not being signed at the time, Mone would go on to reveal that a conversation with Tony Khan saw the AEW owner want to see her do a segment with Willow Nightingale, stating:

“Then I saw Tony backstage, and he was SO excited to have me there. So excited, in fact, that he wanted me to do a backstage segment with… WILLOW! I was like— WOWOWOWOW. WAIT! I am NOT signed. I do NOT work here. I’m just here to enjoy the show!

“Backstage, I got to see so many familiar faces—Amanda Huber, Renee, Rusev—and I got to meet so many new people too. Then I was escorted to my box seats, and for once… I got to be a FAN. Do you understand how rare that is for me? I never really got the opportunity to sit in the crowd and just be a fan at WrestleMania. Okay… MAYBE there was one time I went in disguise for Bayley’s match. But that’s another story.

“This time, I could actually sit there. No match to prepare for. No entrance to think about. No pressure. Just Moné and more than 80,000 screaming wrestling fans celebrating the thing I love most in this entire world. From the way I was treated to the moment I arrived at Wembley, I remember thinking: Wait… I love this!”

Mercedes Mone and Willow Nightingale have history together in AEW, with The CEO losing her TBS Championship to her fellow star at Dynamite: New Year’s Smash in December of last year.

A back-to-back women’s Owen Hart Cup winner, Mone will face Nightingale once again at All In: London on August 30.

A WWE Return For The Former Star?

Considering her WWE departure came about after walking out of the company due to creative issues, abandoning the Women’s Tag Team Championship in that moment, it seems unlikely that the former Sasha Banks will be rushing back to her former home.

Indeed, her subsequent independent wrestling run and AEW contract signing “likely makes her the top-paid female performer in the history of wrestling”, according to sources in late 2024, with little indication that the star is unhappy with her current standing.

A top star in AEW, it’s curious that Mone hasn’t held the Women’s Championship previously, suggesting that her role is less about titles and more about being a truly bankable talent. That could all, of course, change at All In: London, with an AEW Women’s World Championship win seeing The CEO add more prestige to the top title.

Only time will tell when it comes to a return to WWE for the star, although she did respond to a fan who recently shouted “Sasha, come home” at a recent episode of AEW Dynamite.

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