Former WWE Star Pitched To Win Royal Rumble Before Departure

Published: Feb 21, 2025 by Jamie Toolan | Last Updated: Feb 21, 2025 by Jamie Toolan

Jamie has been covering the world of wrestling for four years and currently holds the position of Assistant Editor of WrestleTalk.com. During his time working for WrestleTalk.com he has written and published over 4,000 news and feature articles covering events and happenings from WWE, AEW, TNA and a variety of international and independent wrestling promotions.

WWE

A former WWE star was reportedly pitched to win the Royal Rumble before their departure from the company.

In 2025, Mercedes Mone is enjoying a championship-laden run in AEW, holding not only the TBS Title but also both the NJPW STRONG Women’s and the RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Championships.

While the list of Mone’s accomplishments continues to grow, the former Sasha Banks could have had a huge honor on her resume had plans gone differently at the 2022 WWE Royal Rumble.

In a new report Fightful Select has learned several fresh details regarding the booking of the women’s Royal Rumble in January 2022, including several scrapped plans that never came to fruition.

According to the report, Mercedes Mone was “pitched by many” to win the 2022 Rumble, however, this accolade would go to Ronda Rousey, who was returning to the company after an almost three year hiatus at the time.

While Rousey won the match after entering at number 28 and eliminating four entrants, Vince McMahon’s original vision for the how the former UFC Champion would win was drastically different.

According to the report McMahon had pitched for Rousey to eliminate the entire field of WWE stars in the women’s Rumble match, and was “steadfast” in executing an idea such as this due to Rousey committing to a full-time WWE schedule in 2022.

As a result of McMahon’s “off the wall” vision for the match, backstage producer TJ Wilson (Tyson Kidd) reportedly “walked away” for a period of time ahead of the Royal Rumble event, with Fit Finlay being called in to produce the match.

The report noted how McMahon instructed many of the brief cameo appearances in the match to “get in and get out”, with Kelly Kelly, Cameron, Sarah Logan, Summer Rae, Melina, Molly Holly and Ivory all lasting under a minute each, leading to “frustration” with McMahon backstage.

At least four planned cameo appearances turned WWE down, including Peyton Royce, Billie Kay and current SmackDown star Nia Jax, with TJ Wilson’s lack of involvement cited as a factor for at least one of the names.

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