Matt Hardy shares his thoughts on Mercedes Mone's NJPW debut and her potential move to AEW.
The former Sasha Banks returned to the wrestling world at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 and attacked IWGP Women's Champion KAIRI. For weeks, fans have been speculating that Mone could be on her way to AEW, especially after the company announced that Saraya and a mystery partner would face Britt Baker and AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter on the January 11 episode of AEW Dynamite. But on the January 4 episode, Saraya named Toni Storm as her partner, casting some doubt on many fans' predictions.
Speaking on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, the veteran was asked to share his thoughts on Mone's NJPW debut. Hardy noted that he appreciated the way she bet on herself by leaving WWE, as he has done the same thing during his career. He then described how he thinks she's killing it, as Mone continues to generate buzz.
"Good for her. She really bet on herself, and it’s hard for me not to appreciate that because I’m one of those guys too where I feel like Vince always knew that. I didn’t have to be in WWE. I’m not afraid to step out of Alexandria, a safe zone. I kind of compare Alexandria of the Walking Dead to WWE. If you stay inside and you have these walls, you’re gonna have a nice life and it’s safe and it’s easy, and you can make decent money, and it’s good. But you can go outside those walls, and you can survive on your own, but you have so hustle. So I have huge respect for anyone who is willing to leave WWE and go out and hustle on their own. I think Mercedes is killing it. She’s doing a great job at keeping herself relevant and keeping herself in conversations, being a huge talking point in the wrestling business. Showing up at New Japan and doing what she did was a big deal," Hardy said.
When asked whether he could see a spot for Mercedes in AEW, Hardy noted that he definitely could, but he stated that he could also see her remaining a free agent and "doing spots" at AEW. Hardy also made it clear that he doesn't know whether Mercedes will be Saraya's tag team partner on AEW Dynamite, but he wouldn't be surprised if she showed up.
"Yeah, without a doubt. I don’t even know if that would start… I could almost see her being a free agent for a while and just doing spots at AEW. I could definitely see that happening. It wouldn’t surprise me if she ends up showing up this coming up Dynamite as the mystery partner. It wouldn’t surprise me at all. I don’t know, I don’t have that information, but it wouldn’t surprise me," Hardy said.
When co-host Jon Alba asked Hardy what adding someone like Mercedes would do for AEW and the locker room, Hardy described how he thinks she's a big star, and her arrival would be a significant move in the wrestling world. some like her do for AEW, the locker room. He compared her potential debut to Cody Rhodes' departure and agreed when Alba noted that it would be like a "reverse Cody" situation.
"She’s a big star. There’s no if, ands, or buts about it. She really has put a ton of equity on her name, and on her character, on her identity as a pro wrestler. She’s been able to continue to hold that as she hasn’t even working with WWE. She’s kept herself in the headlines, which is great. Her coming to AEW would be a big deal. I feel like in some ways it would be very similar to, almost like a Cody situation in some ways. It’s like a huge jump, left WWE and came to AEW. It would have that feel, yeah," Hardy said.
Booker shared his thoughts on Mercedes Mone's NJPW debut. Check out his comments here.
Mone will challenge KAIRI for the IWGP Women's Championship. More information is available here.
Dax Harwood recently described how Mone wants to be looked at like Steve Austin and The Rock. Click here to see what he had to say.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
