{"id":49166,"date":"2023-01-05T09:57:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T14:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49166"},"modified":"2023-01-06T09:57:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T14:57:34","slug":"mercedes-mone-and-the-inevitable-journey-back-to-sasha-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49166","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes Mone and the inevitable journey back to Sasha Banks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

When the news broke that Sasha Banks and Naomi stormed out of the WWE, I thought it was all a work (read: wrestling speak for scripted).\u00a0 Usually if it\u2019s ever mentioned on the air, it is done so deliberately, but in the ever-shifting and moving machine that is the professional wrestling industry, it turned out to be something a little more real, regardless of the fact that they had acknowledged it on the air.<\/span><\/p>\n

Long story short, the two of them walked out citing poor opportunities and just generally disagreeing with how Creative was going to be using them for the foreseeable future.\u00a0 And although it was never confirmed, and probably will never be admitted, the whole thing really sounds more like it echoes the beliefs of Sasha Banks than it does Naomi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Naomi had been around long enough to have eaten her fair share of shit sandwiches and understand that everyone in history is going to have to deal with them on the menu from time to time, but Sasha on the other hand had already walked out once, on her own, stating a convoluted burnout excuse before, so it didn\u2019t seem far-fetched for someone like me to think that it was happening again, but with an accomplice.<\/span><\/p>\n

As time passed and news and the rumor mill churned, the general sentiment was that Sasha left because she didn\u2019t think the company was taking the women\u2019s division seriously, regardless of the evolutions and revolutions they\u2019ve spouted throughout the last decade.\u00a0 Frankly, I thought she was just salty over not being in a world title storyline, because it very much seemed like with her, she\u2019s either in a world title picture, or she\u2019s walked out; she hasn\u2019t been around long enough for her history to show too contrary to this logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, when old man Vince stepped down and Triple H basically took over operations, there was a lot of speculation that Sasha would be back, because Trips didn\u2019t waste much time undoing a lot of the bad for business choices that Vince had made over the last year.\u00a0 But then there still was no Sasha, or Naomi for that matter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, news broke that Mercedes Varnado<\/em> was going to be appearing at New Japan\u2019s Wrestle Kingdom 17; confirming that there really was a separation between Sasha and the WWE.\u00a0 Further news revealed that during attempts to renegotiate a return, Sasha wanted Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch money, and the WWE was unwilling to acquiesce, and therefore Mercedes decided to take her talents elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s the thing though about the wrestling industry, especially in the WWE: this is a narrative that is hardly unique to Sasha Banks, and I think too many people are getting clouded by gender and the manner in which she ceased to be on television.\u00a0 Respect and treatment of women\u2019s wrestling aside, when it came time to come back, it fell through, due to money.\u00a0 The WWE felt that Sasha Banks wasn\u2019t worth the money she was asking for, so Sasha Banks formally left the company, and took her trade somewhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not personal, it\u2019s simply a disagreement of value.\u00a0 With the ball now in Mercedes Varnado\u2019s court, she went to New Japan because she and her husband are pretty well known to be weebs, and they we were willing to pay her massive amounts of money per appearance, closer to what she was hoping to make.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the thing is, if Mercedes succeeds on winning the bet she placed on herself, then the WWE would without any hesitation, bring Sasha Banks back into the family, pay her what she thinks she\u2019s worth and probably push her to the moon because they don\u2019t believe in the sunk cost fallacy and high salaries equal top of the card.\u00a0 Everyone wins.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a career path that many have embarked on, with some enjoying great success.\u00a0 Drew MacIntyre, Cody Rhodes are good examples of guys who proved themselves outside of the company before coming home.\u00a0 Bobby Lashley and Jinder Mahal are also guys who have enjoyed success after long departures from the company, and as Mahal once stated, the door is never closed, and as long as you\u2019re out there working, the possibility of return is always an option.<\/span><\/p>\n

But until that happens, the newly christened Mercedes Mone has a long road ahead of her to prove her worth.\u00a0 And in spite of the critical analysis of her career, I am a fan of hers, because she\u2019s an amazing worker who legitimately carry a women\u2019s division, and would like to see her succeed.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that I don\u2019t necessarily agree with her business conduct, and feel there are more professional ways to accomplish her obvious goals without having to resort to walkouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I\u2019m a betting man, I anticipate Mercedes back in the WWE by next year.\u00a0 Possibly as a surprise entrant in the 2024 Royal Rumble, but more likely to be returning on the RAW after Wrestlemania<\/em> next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until then, Mone is going to make her Money in NJPW for as long as they\u2019re willing to pay her, her per-appearance deal, which will be pretty substantial, because she will likely win the IWGP Women\u2019s Championship from Kairi, and have a few successful defenses, before she will be expected to drop it to the next up-and-coming Joshi superstar before departing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do think she ends up in AEW at some point this year, because her New Japan deal isn\u2019t going to last forever, and she\u2019ll need to be on television somewhere in order to keep her value up.\u00a0 Not to mention, if her first appearance at Wrestle Kingdom is any indication, she\u2019s going to get a wakeup call to just how different things are in a different company in a different country, real fast.\u00a0 I mean seriously, the fact that their microphones had an echo threw her off, and she didn\u2019t seem to react well to the atypical Japanese crowd reactions or lack thereof.\u00a0 And in the post-match media scrums, there was a lot of uncomfortable silences with nobody knowing what to say to her, and her having no idea of what to say to fill the quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unless she full-ass leaves wrestling outright to go be in Mandalorian spinoffs, she needs to stay on television in order to remain a commodity, plus there\u2019s no denying that AEW will pay her a ridiculous amount to come to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if Mercedes is smart, she won\u2019t sign anything too long term, because although the money would be nice, Tony Khan can\u2019t book anything beyond a month.\u00a0 Mercedes Mone would drop in AEW to a massive reaction, get into a feud with either Britt Baker or Jade Cargill, but once that\u2019s over, she\u2019s on Dark: Elevation<\/em>, wrestling against Emi Sakurai.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which sets the timeline convenient to where in 2024, Sasha Banks can make a triumphant return to the WWE, where she\u2019ll immediately be thrust into a world title program, and hopefully be happy again for another year until she has to drop it and then walks out on the company again when she\u2019ll be expected to work with Cora Jade or Io Shirai and take a loss.<\/span><\/p>\n

But at least she\u2019ll have working formula to keep herself fluid and able to always be at the top of a card somewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the news broke that Sasha Banks and Naomi stormed out of the WWE, I thought it was all a work (read: wrestling speak for scripted).\u00a0 Usually if it\u2019s ever mentioned on the air, it is done so deliberately, but in the ever-shifting and moving machine that is the professional wrestling industry, it turned out … Continue reading Mercedes Mone and the inevitable journey back to Sasha Banks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[151,83,54,55],"class_list":["post-49166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-blets","tag-observations","tag-wrestling","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49168,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49166\/revisions\/49168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}