Renee Paquette has high praise for Mercedes Mone.
Mercedes Mone officially became a free agent in the new year and she wasted little time going elsewhere, making her NJPW debut at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 by confronting KAIRI and setting up a match at NJPW Battle in the Valley.
Mone (formerly Sasha Banks in WWE) has spent the majority of her career in WWE before she walked out in May 2022 and pursued other ventures while being "suspended indefinitely" by WWE.
Speaking on her podcast The Sessions, Renee Paquette (Renee Young in WWE) praised Mone for betting on herself.
"For me, having worked with her from such an early time, met her at NXT, watched her rise through WWE, watched those ups and downs, the times stepping out after WrestleMania after losing the tag titles, having that moment, kind of leaving for a little a while, spending some time in Japan, I believe she spent some time in Mexico. To seeing what she's done now after whatever exactly happened on her and Trinity walking out from WWE. I really applaud the balls of this woman. It's not not giving a shit, it's actually giving a ton of shits. She cares so much about what she does. She cares so much about women's professional wrestling. It's not easy. I know a lot of people, if you watch from the outside, 'yeah, it's good, leave that company, go do whatever.' It's not fucking easy to walk away from making a good amount of money. I have no idea what her contract was, she's making a lot of money, there are not a lot of opportunities in the world to do what she does as a professional wrestler, make good income, still professionally be satisfied what she's doing. For her to put one of those things ahead of the other and go, 'No, I'm not satisfied with what I'm doing, this isn't sitting right with me, I want to go out and pursue these other things.' To have the guts to do that, and not knowing, you don't have your hand on that other branch, you don't know what that looks like. I don't know if she thought, 'Maybe I'll eventually go to AEW.' I'm sure she always knew she wanted to go to Japan. That must have always been somewhere that she wanted to land, whether it's doing something in Stardom, showing up and doing something in New Japan, doing something at Wrestle Kingdom, but for her to not know what that's going to be, and have that time. What do you do in that uncomfortable time of where do I go and what am I going to do? Am I going to do more television shows? Am I going to do movies? What am I going to do? For her to take that time, listen, I would love to pick her brain and have her on here. I have floated the request her way [laughs], to have her on to know what that's like to kind of sit in that down time and not know where you're going to go and to block out that noise," said Renee.
She continued, "I can't imagine how many people, whether it's people on social media, people she knows, friends, co-workers, peers, kind of get in her head and figure out what she's going to do. How can you walk away from all this money, you have all these opportunities. She was, always, very much a featured player on WWE television. She's had a great career, she's never going to not work or be sidelined entirely. It's really fucking cool to see someone care so much about what they do, and receive flack for that for whatever reason, and to stick to your guns and show up and have that big moment. It's the beginning for her. It's the beginning of something new and you're landing on your feet again and figuring out who you are. Who is Mercedes Mone, how is she different from Sasha Banks? How are you going to navigate these new waters? Knowing how creative she is and the time she spends in the ring, she's not someone who doesn't want to go to work. She doesn't want to not work. She's a chick that wants to be there and put in the work and change what women's wrestling is. Hats off to her for doing the damn thing, having her friends by her side that understand her vision, knowing what she wants to do, and executing it."
Renee reiterated how tough it can be to leave WWE and venture out into the rest of the wrestling world. Paquette and her co-host Emilio Sparks noted how she and her husband Jon Moxley both left WWE and have had successful careers outside of the company.
Paquette and Moxley are both signed to AEW.
Mone is set to officially return to the ring at NJPW Battle in the Valley, which has already sold out. Fans can learn more about the event by clicking here.
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