Mercedes Moné Does Big BUSINE$$
Mercedes Moné’s long rumored, long awaited debut at AEW finally happened this past Wednesday on Dynamite from the TD Garden in Boston. Moné started the show and received a thunderous ovation from the crowd:
In front of an impressive crowd of nearly 10,000, Mercedes cut a heartfelt promo with her closest friends & current WWE Superstars Naomi, Bayley & Tamina in attendance watching. Her opening quarter segment drew over 1 million viewers and was the big reason the overall show drew over 800K. That viewership rating was up over 3% from the previous week.
With Mercedes Moné now in AEW, the women’s division now has infused big time star power to help bolster an already stacked, underrated division. Mercedes figures to headline the women’s division on both Collision & Dynamite and we may have gotten a big clue to who Mercedes could end up feuding with first:
Mercedes Moné’s signing with AEW reportedly makes her the highest paid female in the wrestling industry. According to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, an unnamed WWE female star told WON the following:
One WWE woman star noted to us that they were hearing that the number was enough to make her the highest paid woman in pro wrestling and that they were thrilled at AEW for making the offer and happy for her to have accepted it, because in the long run it means it’s a better market for the top women wrestlers, noting,
“I think it sets a standard that woman should be paid, too. The women do great numbers and have huge social followings” and also said that it was “a huge deal for women in the industry who are paid a lot less than men.”
– Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter
For those wondering, WWE did extend an offer to Mercedes to return but according to an advocate for Moné, the choice was clear for her:
During an appearance on the Heal Squad podcast, Keven Undergaro, an advocate for Moné who helped produce her new theme… spoke about how WWE made an offer for Moné to return:
“A few months ago, we get a call from her old home saying they want her back. They put out a generous offer.”
Undergaro said that a “rival company” to WWE, that being AEW, put out an offer and Mone’s gut instinct was to go with the All-Elite promotion. In the interview, he also shared that AEW’s deal was seen as the better one in terms of opportunity, creativity, and mental help.
– Thomas Lowson, SECScoops.com
It’s Past Time For A Women’s Mid-Card Title in WWE
WWE saw an influx of women either debut or return in January to bolster what may already be considered the best women’s division in professional wrestling. Naomi returned at the Royal Rumble after nearly a 2-year absence. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez returned from injury. Alexa Bliss is expected to return sometime this year. And then there was the long awaited debut of Jade Cargill at the Royal Rumble.
The women’s roster is now loaded in the WWE and currently the road to WrestleMania features only two storylines for the women – Bayley vs. Damage CTRL and Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch(with Nia Jax & Liv Morgan playing the foils for Ripley & Lynch). Bianca Belair, who is on the cover of WWE 2K4, doesn’t have a WrestleMania match. The women’s roster as of this date is as follows:
| Alba Fyre | Charlotte Flair | Kairi Sane+ | Nikki Cross | Tiffany Stratton |
| Alexa Bliss – LOA | Chelsea Green | Katana Chance | Piper Nevin | Valhalla |
| Asuka+ | Dakota Kai | Kayden Carter | Raquel Rodriguez | Xia Li |
| B-Fab | Elektra Lopez | Liv Morgan | Rhea Ripley^ | Zelina Vega |
| Bayley | Indi Hartwell | Maxxine Dupri | Shayna Baszler | Zoey Stark |
| Becky Lynch | Isla Dawn | Mia Yim | Shotzi – Injured | |
| Bianca Belair | Ivy Nile | Naomi | Sonya Deville – Injured | |
| Candice Lerae | Io Sky* | Natayla | Tamina | |
| Carmella – LOA | Jade Cargill | Nia Jax | Tegan Nox |
With 41 women on the roster 2 main event titles and a tag team title isn’t enough for the women. If we’re looking at this in tiers you will have the following:
- Main Event tier: Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Asuka, Io Sky
- Upper Mid-Card tier: Naomi, Nia Jax, Jade Cargill, Tiffany Stratton, Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane, Alexa Bliss
- Mid-Card tier: Liv Morgan, Shayna Baszler, Zoey Stark, Mia Yim, Candice Lerae, Raquel Rodriguez, Piper Nevin, Zelina Vega, Natayla, Ivy Nile, Chelsea Green
With this setup you have your Top 7 and then those in the upper mid-card who can either contend for the main event titles or be underdog title winners. That leaves 27 women without any real storylines outside of the women’s tag titles(which are defended across all 3 brands). At this point the women’s tag titles are nothing more than props.
Why not have a women’s intercontinental title for the women who are not in the main event/upper mid-card scene? It will give the women a championship to chase instead of being paired together in awkward tag teams to try and shoehorn into a tag team title scene that is basically DOA. The WWE continues to start & stop this focus on the tag titles. They do the same for the men. It’s unfair to the women who work hard day in and day out to just be stuck in catering or thrown together in a random tag teams. Granted there are only 5 hours of TV time but that doesn’t mean that storylines can’t be developed outside of those parameters. It’s 2024 and still the women deserve better.
The Rock Is Sucking The Air Out of The Main Event
Yes, I was super excited to have The Rock back in WWE and was really excited when it looked as though we could get Roman vs. Rock at WrestleMania. I’m even comfortable with the planned main event for Night 1 at WrestleMania. What I’m starting to get uncomfortable with is this – The Rock is sucking the air out of the room.
Since The Rock was interjected into the main event of WrestleMania, he’s been on SmackDown giving extremely long-winded promos. On back to back SmackDown’s the promos were so long that a match was considerably cut one week and the ending of SmackDown had to be rushed another week. The Rock has been on social media cutting these promos on Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins… only to cut those same promos almost verbatim. While the social media posts are entertaining WWE needs to realize those long-winded promos are taking away from the major storyline and focusing the storyline more on Cody & The Rock.
Most of all what is lost in all of this is the fact the WWE Undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns has become the prop in the storyline. Before The Rock entered the story it was clear Cody Rhodes was gunning after Roman Reigns & the Bloodline. It was clear Cody Rhodes’ mission was finishing the story and winning the championship that has eluded his family. Now it’s become this hodge podge of Rock, Cody, Seth and the forgotten step-child Roman. Seth being roped into this also devalues his upcoming match with Drew McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Title. That match should’ve main evented Night 1 but has been pushed aside for this tag team match.
Now all of this can be a ruse if it turns out that everyone was in on getting revenge on Roman. Still… the way they will ultimately get to that story has been a mess and it has devalued the world title matches. As far as I’m concerned the true main event of WrestleMania is the tag team match between the 4 superstars and that shouldn’t be the case.
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