Mercedes Mone insists Kairi Sane match will be ‘one of the greatest of all-time’

Mercedes Mone, formerly known as Sasha Banks, has spent the past decade forging a reputation as one of the all-time wrestling greats.

After leaving the WWE over ‘creative differences’ last year, the five-time Raw women’s champion is back wrestling after confronting IWGP women’s champion Kairi at Wrestle Kingdom last month.

She has joined the NJPW but insists she is ‘free as a bird’ to wrestle where she likes, with Mone intent on living up to her new name by chasing the ‘biggest bag’.

It’s not just wrestling that’s catching her eye either, with the three-time WWE women’s tag team champion also starting an acting career which has already seen her star in hit Disney+ show The Mandalorian. 

Speaking the day before her title fight with Sane in Saturday’s star-studded Battle in the Valley – which you can watch on FITE – she told Alex McCarthy about what she insists will be ‘one of the greatest matches of all time.’

Mercedes Mone is preparing for a return to the wrestling at the NJPW Battle in the Valley

She will face IWGP women’s champion Kairi after confronting her in Japan last month

Tomorrow, people will get the re-introduction: Mercedes Mone. How excited are you to step out on a global stage outside of WWE?

It’s so exciting. I can’t believe it’s tomorrow I’ve been waiting for this since after Wrestle Kingdom. Straight after I finished dropping Kairi I left that statement, I was so ready for February 18th, and now it’s tomorrow!

I’m so excited for the fans to experience Mercedes Mone, and I’m excited too because this is something that has been a dream of mine for a while now, and to do it in front of a crowd in San Jose, its only an hour and a half away from where I was born in Fairfield, California. 

My friends and family will be there I have all the support in the world. To have my first match back against Kairi, I’m just beyond excited.

Yours was the only match announced when Battle in the Valley was sold out. Stepping out of that global juggernaut of WWE, that’s got to feel great.

It feels incredible, but I have the greatest fans in the world so I knew it was going to be successful, I didn’t know how quickly it was going to be but it sold out like that!

I didn’t know that they were only going to only announce one card on the match and have it sell out, we don’t even need to put other matches on the card, they just wait to see me vs Kairi which is beyond cool.

Battle of the Valley has the potential to be pay-per-view of the year because of the match up and the card on the pay-per-view alone, as a wrestling fan, just seeing it I’m thinking when can I have time to watch it as a fan because I have to get ready for my match! 

I think tomorrow night is going to be one of the greatest pay-per-views of all time. It’s going to be incredible.

We haven’t seen you and Kairi in a focused, big time event before, is it all just about timing and the stars aligning? 

You always have to listen to the universe and the stars. For me to have Kairi to be my comeback as someone that I used to work with, only had a couple of match-ups with with and maybe one single’s match that was three minutes. This is something that is so different

When she went back to Stardom and went to Japan I was so excited for her and so proud of her, and then when she went to New Japan when they introduced this woman’s division and she won the IWGP Women’s Championship.

I just kind of new this is the one, this is the championship I want to focus on. It’s creating so much magic that’s never been done before. 

I think tomorrow night we’re just going to show people all over the world what women’s wrestling can do on a global scale. 

After the Bianca Belair Wrestlemania match, you already had a legendary resume. now you’re adding to that outside of WWE, when did you decide Japan is next?

My heart kept on pounding, my dream kept on being the same every time I went to sleep. I’ve had this Japan dream since I was 13 and it never went away.

 With this opportunity of being a free agent I knew I had the choice, and I got to make the decision so I knew when I saw the IWGP women’s championship was first announced that this was it. It was a dream come true so I had to go chase it.

I flew my butt to Wrestle Kingdom, left a little mark on Kairi Sane and now here we are!

Tomorrow is San Jose, Battle in the Valley, it’s about time for me to bring something home. I’ve been away from the ring for nine months so I’m to bring a baby home! 

Your hair looks awesome, how much work was that?!

A lot of work! It’s never easy, not even when you’ve got that much money in the bag. You’ve got no idea how hard it is to find a hair stylist that can do weaves in Japan. 

I know that you had filed various trademarks after leaving WWE, when did you land on Mercedes Mone? 

Instantly. I think as far back as June. I was like, you know what you want, you know what you have in the bank, you know what you are, you are Mone.

It just kind of rolled off the tongue, I got all my trademarks in order so I get to collect all the cheques when it comes to my IP, I love it!

Everyone got a taste of you in front of the crowd when you made that amazing appearance at Wrestle Kingdom. What was it like being in front of the Japan crowd? It looked like you relished it.

They were so loud! I was expecting them to be quiet because they weren’t allowed to cheer in Japan because of the pandemic, they’ve only lifted that within the last couple of weeks.

When I came out I heard this wave and this loud clapping, it was a different kind of noise that I’ve never felt, like a respectful noise.

I can’t wait to go and wrestle rather than just doing a promo because that alone felt like the same reaction I would have got from an American crowd.

Is there a hitlist of ladies for your to work with in Japan? Are there names off the top of your head?

I gave a nice little list to New Japan of who I wanted to work with, so I’m seeing what they’re going to stir up and what wheel they’re going to spin because the Stardom women are the absolute best. 

There’s so many people on my list, not just in Japan but all over the world. There’s a lot of women I’ve not been able to face yet. This is the year to do it.

You’ve branched into Hollywood and TV before but the WWE schedule must have been demanding, has that changed now that you’re a free agent and you can spread your wings a bit?

 B*** I already shot a movie in November! I feel great! 

It feels amazing. The opportunity to chose your own schedule, to choose when you wake up, it’s amazing to spread your wings and feel free, and be able to create magic in not just one place.

Wrestling is my heart and soul but to be able to do that plus more is the best feeling in the world right now. 

Paige was looking for a partner in All Elite Wrestling last month and, obviously, your name was on the lips of many fans. Are you tied down to any kind of deal to Japan, and have AEW reached out?

I’m free as a bird! Especially after tomorrow when I win the IWGP Women’s Championship, I plan to take that all over the world not just in Japan, and wherever that championship ends up is wherever I will choose to make it happen.

Whoever has the best bag, whoever writes the best cheque for Mercedes Mone, that’s where I might end up at. 

 There’s been a lot of talk about you leaving WWE. You always wanted to make something great for those women’s tag team titles, is that ultimately what the ‘creative differences’ came down to?

If I was going to talk about this for the first time it wouldn’t be with you!

You can’t blame a guy for trying!

When it comes to anything in wrestling you have to go with your heart and your passion and your soul. That’s all I have for this is my passion and my love for this.

I will love wrestling until the day that I die. I want to fight for this, I want to create magic for people all over the world. I can’t let that dream die.

I just have to keep on showing the world my love for this, and show them that women’s wrestling is where it’s at. It needs to be the top headline, needs to be respected, it needs to be given the same opportunity just like the men.

That’s what we’re going to be doing tomorrow in Battle in the Valley, for New Japan pro wrestling. Me vs Kairi for the women’s championship.

Tomorrow night I think it’s going to be one of the greatest matches of all time, we’re going to be feeling our heart, our soul, our passion. 

We’ll really see what women’s wrestling can create.

You’ll be doing multiple events this year, once you collect the belt of course, will that just be in the States?

Let me tell you this: If I’m not winning tomorrow I will not step foot in Japan. I’m going to do everything I can to take that championship from Kairi. Once I do, then we’ll be talking about Japan and where I’ll be going.

Once there was the transition at WWE from Vince McMahon to Triple H, did Triple H reach out? I understand he was important in the early part of your career.

Tonight I’m going to be airing a very special clip where I talk about my debut at Wrestle Kingdom and just how I embark on my new chapter. You’ll get all the answers there!

Again, you’ve got an amazing resume, have you got a top three matches in your career that mean the most to you?

 The first has to be me vs Bayley at NXT Takeover. My career cannot be outdone! I really loved myself vs Alexa Bliss in Abu Dhabi, that meant so much to me.

Then I would have so say myself vs Bayley at Hell in a Cell during the pandemic, I still see clips of that match and I can’t believe we had such an incredible match without fans.

It must have hurt more without the adrenaline from a crowd, too!

Everything hurt! I just can’t believe the passion you get from that match with nobody in the audience. I loved that match, and if I could do any of those matches that I had in the pandemic with the crowd today, I can’t even imagine the feeling.

Watch Mercendes Mone’s debut match as she challenges Kairi Sane for the IWGP Women’s Championship at Battle in the Valley on FITE