Last Wednesday, Mercedes Monè made her much anticipated debut in NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 17. She’s been the talk of the wrestling world and the conversation has turned to AEW.
Last month, AEW began hyping up a mystery opponent for Saraya for the January 11 episode of Dynamite. Social media began buzzing that none other than Monè would be her partner. The two have a history and it would make sense for “The Blueprint” to be her partner. Last week, Saraya told Toni Storm that she was her partner.
Matt Hardy on what Mercedes Monè would bring to AEW
On the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Hardy said that Monè “really bet on herself. It’s hard for me not to appreciate that because I’m one of those guys too where I feel like — Vince knew that too — I don’t have to be in WWE. I’m not afraid to step out of Alexandria, a safe zone. I kind of compare Alexandria from the Walking Dead to WWE. If you stay inside and you have these walls, you’re going to have like, a nice life and it’s safe and it’s easy. 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 to 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 and she’s doing a great job keeping herself relevant, keeping herself in conversations, being a huge talking point in wrestling business and showing up in New Japan and doing what she did. It was a big deal.”
When asked if he could see Monè in AEW, Hardy replied, “without a doubt.” “I could almost see her being a free agent for a while and just doing spots in AEW. I could definitely see that happening. And 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.”
(Note: this episode was recorded prior to Saraya’s announcement of Toni Storm.)
On what Monè would bring to AEW, Hardy declares that “she is a big star. I mean, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts, about it. I mean, she really has put a ton of equity on her name and on her character and on her identity as a pro wrestler. And she’s been able to continue to hold that as she hasn’t been working with WWE. She’s kept herself in the headlines, which is great.”
“Her coming in to AEW would be a big deal. I feel in some ways, it would be very similar to almost like Cody situation in some ways. It’s like a huge jump; left WWE and came to AEW. It would have that feel.”