Mercedes Mone Signs With Major Talent Agency

NJPW

Mercedes Mone has been the talk of the wrestling world this past week, when she made her return to the ring at the NJPW Battle in the Valley event.

Mercedes defeated KAIRI to become the second-ever IWGP Women’s Champion in the show’s semi-main event, her first match since she and Naomi walked out of WWE Raw back in May 2022.

During her time away, Mercedes dabbled in various other interests, and it appears as though she is looking to continue expanding her brand.

Variety is reporting that Mercedes Varnado (Mone) has signed with the UTA talent agency.

Per Variety:

Professional wrestler, actress, and model Mercedes Varnado has signed with UTA for representation in all areas. The agency will help her secure new opportunities across film, television, theater and more.

Varnado is most recognized for her work in WWE under the name Sasha Banks. She exited that company in 2022 and now wrestles under the name Mercedes Moné.

In January 2023, she appeared in New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17, which helped the company generate over 900,000 new users — the most in NJPW world history — and sell over 25k tickets, which marks the highest ticket sales for a non-WWE live event in the last three years.

In 2019, she made her acting debut in season two of the hit Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” where she played Koska Reeves. She’s made several appearances on a number of unscripted shows including “Nick Cannon Presents: Wild N Out,” “Hot Ones,” “Barmageddon,” and “Cold As Balls.” She’s also led national endorsement campaigns for such brands as Pizza Hut, Cricket Wireless and Pure Life.

Varnado is an ESPY award winner and is widely regarded as an athlete whose contributions helped revolutionize wrestling at a high level. In 2021, she made history as the first African American female to headline Wrestlemania.

Prior to joining WWE, she wrestled on the independent circuit. While a part of Chaotic Wrestling, she once held the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship title. She also had over eight championship reigns during her time with WWE and their development NXT — she’s a former NXT Women’s Champion, 5-time Raw Women’s Champion, and 3-time WWE Women’s tag team champions. She also won the SmackDown Women’s Championship in 2020.

She will continue to be repped by her Advocate, Keven Undergaro.

Mercedes’ first challenger for the IWGP Women’s Championship was seemingly announced recently.

She has also named former WWE star and current IMPACT Knockouts Champion Mickie James as someone she’d like to face.

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• Signing
• Mercedes Varnado
• Mercedes Mone
• uta

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