Mercedes Mone describes how her experience with The Mandalorian led to one of the best years of her career.
Mone appeared as Koska Reeves in two episodes of the second season of The Mandalorian, which premiered in October 2020. At the time, Mone was known as Sasha Banks in WWE, and she was one of the company's top stars. Banks won the SmackDown Women's Championship at WWE Hell in a Cell 2020, and she had a prominent run on SmackDown leading into her historic match with Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 37.
Alongside Katee Sackhoff and Simon Kassianides, Mone participated in The Mandalorian cast panel at Emerald City Con (video via Popverse). In one highlight, she reflected in her experience on the show and noted how it differed from what she had been used to as a wrestler. Mone also emphasized that she learned a lot from Sackhoff and brought these lessons with her in her wrestling career. She then stated that the stretch between 2019 and 2020 was consequently one of the best years of her wrestling career.
“I never experienced anything where you had to repeat yourself over and over and over and over. I’m so used to just one take, live, and then go, and just be like, ‘Okay.’ That’s my anxiety and stress, but I know I can get it done. But to do it 20 times, maybe 40 times, great. Now we have to change angles. Now we have to do it 40 or 50 times on your left side, from the back, to the right, above you, behind you, underneath you. I never, ever experienced that. So to do 14-hour days I would just look at Katee [Sackhoff] and I would just be so blown away. I learned so much from you, and I grew from watching you. I was so empowered by everything you did on set. She knew Bo as a tea that she would go to Jon [Favreau] and Dave [Filoni] and be like, ‘I think Bo would do this or say this.’ I learned so much from Katee because I brought that back to wrestling. I’m like, you have to remember who you are and what you’re gonna bring to the table. You are the character. You’re gonna be this the rest of your life and bring it to people’s viewership. So she knew so much about being a strong woman that I brought that back to wrestling, and I felt like that was one of my best years in wrestling in 2019 and 2020 because of everything I learned from you and Bryce [Dallas Howard]," Mone said.
In 2022, Mone and her tag team partner Naomi walked out on WWE during the May 16 episode of WWE Raw. They were stripped of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship and indefinitely suspended. Mone went on to leave the company, and she made her NJPW debut at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4. She defeated KAIRI to win the IWGP Women's Championship at NJPW Battle in the Valley.
Mone previously confirmed that she wouldn't be in the third season of The Mandalorian, which premiered on Disney+ on March 1. More information is available here.
Click here to see Mone's comments about her opponent at NJPW Sakura Genesis.
Mone recently signed with the UTA Talent Agency. More information is available here.
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