Long before making it big, Mercedes Moné (aka Sasha Banks in WWE), then known as Mercedes KV, was struggling on the independent circuit.
Before her run as Sasha Banks in NXT and the WWE main roster, which abruptly ended in 2022, Mercedes KV was hustling and trying to make a name for herself. Throughout her time before WWE, KV wrestled for multiple promotions, including one time with John Cena's father, John Cena Sr.
Cena Sr. recently appeared on the Best For Business podcast, where he reflected on his memory with Moné. While the current TBS Champion wanted to quit the business at that time, the veteran ring announcer believed she had the potential to make it big.
“Another one that I picked [was] Sasha Banks,” Cena Sr. noted. “I remember doing a show with her for Chris Setaro in Powerhouse Wrestling. Her mom was there, and she said, ‘I don’t know, I might give it up.’
“I said, ‘No, don’t! You don’t realize what you have. She had so much ability, but it’s [awfully] hard on the indies. It’s not an easy fight out there. It’s very easy to be defeated. I used to tell everybody, and I still do, ‘Don’t do that, only one person is going to defeat you in this business, it’s you,'” he continued.
Moné, then known as Sasha Banks, finally found her break when she joined WWE in 2012 and later evolved herself into one of the four horsewomen of WWE.
Mercedes Moné wanted to prove that WWE wasn't the only place to succeed in wrestling
Last year at the AEW Double or Nothing media scrum, Mercedes Moné addressed her victory and claimed that WWE was not the only place to succeed in the pro-wrestling industry.
“It feels so incredible. I've been waiting for this moment, really ever since I got signed to AEW,” she said. “But really, for the past two years, not knowing where I was going to be. What was going to happen after leaving WWE, what was going to be next for me. Because a lot of times in wrestling, people think WWE is the only place. And I think tonight, we showed the wrestling world that it's not the only place.”
Moné joined AEW in 2024 and has already established herself as one of the biggest names on the roster.
