Mercedes Mone left the pro wrestling world stunned with her return to the business at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4. She proceeded to attack KAIRI, setting up a bout for the latter’s IWGP Women’s Championship at the Battle in the Valley event on February 18.
While that may sound like good news for her fans, not everything seems to be going well for the former Sasha Banks. She has been pretty active on social media, by sharing photos and videos of her training with other Japanese wrestling stars, but that has not endeared her to New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s officials.
Congrats Mercedes Monè 👑 Money > pic.twitter.com/qPliVUYWF8
— nadia (@vinamkaycee) January 13, 2023
Dave Meltzer, in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, disclosed that some people in New Japan don’t want Banks sharing photos with stars from other promotions:
“There were people talking because of the belief Mone has been promoting Sendai Girls and Tokyo Joshi Pro more than Stardom and the IWGP women’s title. She posted photos from the Sendai Girls dojo saying she wanted to wrestle women that work for that promotion and Tokyo Joshi Pro. The feeling is that now that she’s with Bushiroad, she (should) be only promoting Bushiroad companies in Japan.”
Meltzer did add that Mone hasn’t gone to any Stardom show or the dojo during her time in Japan. At the same time, nobody has pointed out to her that the mentality in Japan about this is quite different, which is what could be causing any confusion between her and the company.
Was this just a misjudged error from Mercedes Mone?