Former Raw Star Reveals Why They Signed With WWE Over AEW

A world-travelled NXT Superstar has revealed what ultimately swayed them to sign with WWE over All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

After first wrestling for WWE in the 2017 Mae Young Classic, Mercedes Martinez makes her NXT TakeOver debut tonight when she takes on Io Shirai and Toni Storm in a triple threat match for the Women’s Championship.

Working for WWE, Shimmer, Rise, AEW and many other promotions in the last 4 years, Martinez has offered some insight into what made her choose WWE as her home.

Reasoning that it’s the goal of most wrestlers, Martinez revealed that she had always dreamed of making it to WWE. After putting in two decades of blood, sweat and tears, Martinez was in the position to make an “impossible” dream come true for herself.

Martinez revealed to Solo Wrestling that even though she competed for other promotions, she had no hesitations signing a WWE contract when the company handed her a deal.

Here is the full quote, courtesy of Wrestling Inc:

“I think WWE is everyone’s ultimate goal. It was always my ultimate goal to come to WWE, and I didn’t know in reality if I was actually ever going to make it here. After 20 years in the business, it’s one of those things that you kind of leave behind in the back of your head. Like, ‘Yeah, I’ll get there when I get there, [but] it may not be a thing.’

“So you want to look at other outlets, whether it’s wrestling overseas or the other companies, but once the WWE contacted me I had no issues whatsoever signing that contract,” Martinez said. “[WWE was] definitely always the go. Even if I didn’t get to be part of WWE, I knew that I would still be wrestling for a couple more years.

“My career was winding down and this was just an opportunity that I had to get, and an opportunity that I really needed. It’s just the combination of all the hard work that I have done, and it just so happens that it came almost at my 20th year [in my] career.”

Martinez is an extremely accomplished wrestler, winning titles all over the world. One career highlight of the Puerto Rican heritage star was when she main-evented NXT Super Tuesday II against Rhea Ripley in a Steel Cage match.

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• Mercedes Martinez
• AEW
• nxt
• wwe

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