Mercedes Mone Opens Up About ‘Easy Decision’ To Join NJPW

NJPW

Mercedes Mone made her NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January 2023 and has recently opened up about her decision to join the company.

Speaking to Under the Ring before she faced KAIRI at NJPW Battle in the Valley on February 18, Mone spoke about joining New Japan and her goal for the women’s division, saying:

“This is such a huge honor for me. It made it a really easy decision to go to New Japan to help kickstart this women’s division for this company.

“With New Japan being the biggest pro wrestling company in Japan, it was just an easy, easy decision to be like, ‘This is the place that I want to be.’

“I grew up watching New Japan, I grew up watching Pro-Wrestling NOAH and all these Japanese women’s wrestling [companies] growing up. So this was such an easy decision.

“It’s a dream come true for me. I think [NJPW Battle in the Valley] is just going to create so much magic and so much history for women’s wrestling that I just want everyone around the world to be like, ‘This is the company that I want to be in’.”

Mone did, indeed, create magic at Battle in the Valley in her debut becoming the second-ever IWGP Women’s Champion by defeating KAIRI.

In the Under the Ring interview, Mone also touched on the possibility of competing in Stardom, saying:

“Oh my god, I see it as one of the greatest potential companies in the world right now. I just keep seeing it growing and growing and getting bigger.

“I’ve been hearing about STARDOM for years. Just knowing that it’s an all-women’s promotion with the greatest women’s wrestlers all over the world, [moreso] now that you have Mercedes Mone in the game, as well.

“I think just watching, I’ve been watching it for the past couple of months, really fine-tuning up, ‘Who do I want to face? Who is the best out there?’

“They have some of the top wrestlers I have ever seen. I’m just so excited to introduce the American audience to the style of STARDOM women.

“I think just giving them the opportunity to show what they can do to a global-scale audience is just going to open up the doors for women’s women’s wrestling all over the world.

“I think they have the greatest wrestling, so I’m excited to be a part of it and just to expand this broadened audience to something so different that they’ve never seen before.”

At the Stardom press conference that took place on February 20, we found out the of her next challenger as AZM laid out a challenge for the title.

NJPW’s Will Ospreay recently listed AZM as one of his top five women wrestlers.

Transcript from Fightful.

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• Mercedes Mone
• azm
• NJPW
• stardom

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