Mercedes Mone Credits This Style For Influencing All Of Pro Wrestling
It's already been nearly a month since Mercedes Moné officially shed her Sasha Banks persona and debuted for New Japan Pro-Wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom 17. While she has a match with KAIRI for the IWGP Women's Championship lined up at New Japan Battle in the Valley next month, and at least one date with STARDOM after that, fans are still wondering what will come next for Moné's self-proclaimed World Domination Tour.
The one thing that's for sure is Moné is still planning on that World Tour, which she revealed in a sit-down interview with New Japan's website.
"I've been saying 'Moné makes the world go round,' and I mean that," Moné said. "I'm thrilled to start this in Japan, and with NJPW and STARDOM. STARDOM, to me, has the best women's wrestlers in the world, and I really want to cement my legacy with my wrestling fans, to cement my name with the greatest of all time. I'm ready to f**king go."
Mercedes Mone says Japanese style of wrestling is like no other
Since joining NJPW, Mercedes Moné has expressed her excitement at wrestling in Japan, both because of the goals she's set for herself and how influential Japanese wrestling — particularly joshi wrestling — has been on her career to date.
"They have a huge influence," Moné said. "The Japanese style of wrestling is legit like no other. They're the most hard-hitting, they're the fastest, they can go non-stop. Asuka is a huge testament to that, as someone who's been doing this so long and traveling non-stop. Io (Shirai) had really made a name for herself even before she came to the United States. Same for KAIRI."
Moné feels that the joshi style of wrestling has not just influenced women's wrestling worldwide, but men's wrestling as well.
"You heard about these Japanese names before they got picked up in WWE because their work is so incredible and resonates around the world. It's like you always hear about Manami Toyota because her influence extends not just to worldwide women's wrestling, but men as well, because she was so fearless, so innovative. So the joshi style has definitely influenced not just women's wrestling in the States, but wrestling period, and it continues to."