The Stunning Evolution Of Mercedes Mone

The landscape of women's wrestling in the United States has been forever changed thanks to the contributions of Mercedes Moné. Even at the relatively young age of 33, "The CEO" has accomplished more in her 15-year career than some people will achieve in careers three times as long as hers.

At the time of writing, she is the AEW TBS Champion, RevPro Undisputed British Women's Champion, CMLL World Women's Champion, and the EWA Women's Champion. Her hand luggage at the airport must be an absolute nightmare at this point, as she has six different belts, as the RevPro title consists of two belts, while she was also given a belt for winning the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. In fact, you could argue that Moné has actually done more in the past two years than virtually anyone in the wrestling business today.

Moné's career up until this point has certainly been an interesting one. Despite being one of the most successful female wrestlers of her generation, she has her fair share of critics that will claim she has some creative control in AEW and the wider wrestling world, while others still hold some sort of parasocial grudge against her for walking out of WWE back in 2022, which stemmed from her frustrations over the direction of the company's women's division at that time. But how did she get here? How did she become "The CEO" we all know today? That is what we are here to talk about today.

So sit back, relax, and join us on a journey to Fairfield, California by way of Boston, Massachusetts, where dive into the life and career of one of women's wrestling's most acclaimed performers. This is the stunning evolution of Mercedes Moné.

Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado was born on January 26, 1992, in Fairfield, California, to parents Judith and Reo. Judith was of German descent, and Reo Varnado was African American. The Varnado extended family is actually a famous one, as it has become well known to wrestling fans that Moné's first cousin is none other than hip-hop legend and WWE Hall of Famer Snoop Dogg, whose father Vernell was Reo's brother. Moné didn't actually know that she had such a famous cousin until the age of nine, when her mother brought her to one of his concerts, something that took a lot of explaining when she got to school the next day.

Not only did she find out she was related to Snoop Dogg, but thanks to him being her cousin, she is a reportedly distant non-blood relative of fellow hip hop icon Daz Dillinger, and potentially related to R&B singers Brandy and Ray J, although Brandy isn't actually sure if she is related to Snoop. While she may have been born in California, Moné and her family ended up traveling to a number of different towns and cities around the United States so that Joshua, her autistic brother, could have the best possible schools and hospitals to cater to his condition.

Before eventually settling in Boston, Massachusetts, the Varnado family spent time in Minnesota. During this time, Moné was actually in attendance for the November 14, 2005, episode of "WWE Raw" that paid tribute to Eddie Guerrero, who had passed away the day before. Guerrero was one of Moné's favorite wrestlers and is one of the main reasons she became a wrestler in the first place. However, one heartbreaking detail about that show was that Moné didn't know Guerrero had passed until she got to the arena.

Once the Varnado family settled in Boston, there was only one thing a young Mercedes Moné wanted to do: become a professional wrestler.

That journey officially started in 2008 when she started her training with Chaotic Wrestling based out of Woburn, Massachusetts, at the age of 16. Moné has admitted that the training she went through was extremely harsh and put her through her paces, with one of her trainers being a man by the name of Todd Smith, who would eventually become none other than former WWE World Tag Team Champion Ivar of the War Raiders.

After she celebrated her 18th birthday in 2010, Mercedes knew that her debut match would not be too far away, and on August 8, 2010, Ivar booked Mercedes on a New England Championship Wrestling (NECW) event in Quincy, Massachusetts. Wrestling under the name Mercedes KV (KV being the first letters of both of her parents' surnames), she teamed up with Ivy, who has gone on to become Evie De La Rosa in IWA-Puerto Rico, to defeat the team of Ariel and Sammi Lane.

From there, Mercedes was off to the races and quickly became a mainstay of the Massachusetts indie scene, with Chaotic Wrestling being her home promotion. During her indie journey, she would capture both the IWE and Chaotic Wrestling Women's Championships, and crossed paths with both veterans and future stars, such as former TNA star Roxxi Laveaux, and current TNA star Alisha Edwards, then known as Alexxis. At the start of 2012, Mercedes was a double champion and was capturing the attention of many fans around the Massachusetts area, as well as fans online, but it was when she managed to turn the heads of WWE at a tryout camp in June that everything changed for Mercedes KV.

Following her tryout, Mercedes KV was officially signed to a WWE developmental deal in August 2012. At just 20 years old, the timing couldn't have been better for her as she was signed less than two months after WWE had revamped its developmental program to the point where the old Florida Championship Wrestling and "WWE NXT" TV show had merged to become its own unique brand.

Still the Chaotic Wrestling Women's Champion during the first few months of her WWE run, Mercedes would appear on "NXT" house shows around Florida, getting the chance to know the likes of Paige, Charlotte Flair, and Emma a little better by working tag team matches and battle royals with them. It was during this time that Mercedes KV was no more, and Sasha Banks was born.

The first official sighting of Sasha Banks on WWE TV was on the December 12, 2012, episode of "NXT," where she wrestled Paige, who by this point had already established herself as a fan favorite. Sasha might not have picked up the win, but it was clear that WWE saw something in her as she was immediately given storylines with Audrey Marie and Summer Rae that boosted her confidence and fleshed out her character.

It was the storyline with Rae that led to the first big transformation of Sasha's career as she crossed paths with someone she would become forever linked with throughout her WWE run and beyond, Bayley. Following a win over Bayley in September 2013, Sasha and Rae attacked Bayley before taking to the microphone, declaring themselves as BFF's, which stood for Beautiful Fierce Females, and Sasha also declaring herself as "The Boss." This would turn her heel for the first time in her WWE career, a move that would ultimately pay off massively.

The BFF's were not long for this world as Sasha Banks would disband the group by mid-2014 after Summer Rae was drafted to the main roster, while Charlotte Flair, who joined the group at the start of 2014, betrayed her BFF in favor of siding with the likes of Bayley and Becky Lynch. However, allowing Banks to fly solo led to her biggest push to date as one quarter of the Four Horsewomen along with Bayley, Flair, and Lynch.

By the end of 2014, all four women were fighting over the NXT Women's Championship, which at the time was held by Charlotte, but Banks, Bayley, and Becky weren't going to rest until they had their hands on the gold. Backstabbing, betrayal, and interfering in everyone's business led to a series of matches between them that would culminate in the first, and to this day only, Fatal Four Way match between the Four Horsewomen at NXT TakeOver: Rival in February 2015. Sasha would emerge victorious, becoming only the third woman in history to hold the NXT Women's Champion, and her reign would turn her from "The Boss" into a "Legit Boss" as she ruled the NXT women's division with an iron fist.

Successful defenses against the likes of Charlotte (twice), Lynch, and Alexa Bliss helped solidify Sasha's place as the undisputed queen of NXT. However, there was one Horsewoman she hadn't defeated since becoming champion: Bayley. After months of crowd support and Sasha worming her way out of defending against her, Bayley would get her shot at Sasha's title at the biggest NXT event at that time, TakeOver: Brooklyn in August 2015. Bayley dethroned Banks to become the new champion in a match many consider to be one of the greatest women's wrestling matches of all time.

Sasha's work as NXT Women's Champion, as well as her matches with the other Four Horsewomen, spearheaded a movement amongst fans of WWE's main roster who were sick of seeing the women's division get less than a fraction of the time the male roster was getting on TV. WWE heard their fans outrage and decided to act by drafting Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte to the main roster in the summer of 2015, while Sasha was still NXT Women's Champion.

This was all part of the "Divas Revolution," a movement designed to give the women's roster more of a platform, and with an injection of new talent in the form of Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte, WWE were hoping that women's wrestling could become great again, and it did. By WrestleMania 32 in 2016, the three former "NXT" stars were among the most popular stars on the entire roster, and were given a chance to strut their stuff on WWE's biggest stage by fighting over the new and improved WWE Women's Championship. Sasha might not have gotten the victory on that night, but she at least got to walk to the ring with her cousin Snoop Dogg by her side.

Things only got better for Sasha when the brand extension was taken more seriously and "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown" were once again two distinct shows. Sasha was drafted to "Raw," and through her feud with Charlotte over the WWE Raw Women's Championship in 2016, she became part of the first-ever women's Hell in a Cell match, which was also the first-ever women's match to headline a WWE pay-per-view. By the summer of 2017, Sasha was a legit megastar, one of the most popular wrestlers in WWE, and had won the WWE Raw Women's Championship on four separate occasions.

More often than not in wrestling, the best of enemies can often become the best of friends, and that was exactly what happened with Sasha Banks and Bayley. Through a mutual respect in the ring and a genuine love for each other out of it, Banks and Bayley went on to become a tag team in 2018, facing off with the likes of The Riott Squad in a feud that would land them a spot on the 2018 Evolution pay-per-view, the first-ever all-female WWE pay-per-view.

The success of the team that would eventually become known as "The Boss N' Hug Connection" would end up being a major reason why the company introduced the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships in early 2019. Naturally, Banks and Bayley walked away as the inaugural champions by winning a tag team Elimination Chamber match, but their first reign as champions would be short-lived as they were dethroned by The IIconics at WrestleMania 35. This was something that caused a lot of discussion at the time as Banks was reportedly ready to quit the company after allegedly being promised a long reign with the titles, but after a short hiatus, she would return, this time as a heel, and "The Boss N' Hug Connection" were heels for the first time.

Following a feud with Becky Lynch over the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship ,where Sasha was unsuccessful in becoming a WWE Women's Grand Slam Champion, The Boss N' Hug Connection became even more focused on gold during the COVID-19 pandemic. They recaptured gold as a tag team while also holding singles gold simultaneously, as Sasha won her fifth WWE Raw Women's Championship, while Bayley held the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship too. However, it wasn't long before The Boss N' Hug Connection exploded.

Sasha and Bayley's alliance came to an end in 2020 as Bayley turned on Sasha, but "The Boss" would get the last laugh by eventually becoming the WWE SmackDown Women's Champion at Hell in a Cell 2020, becoming a WWE Women's Grand Slam Champion in the process. Sasha would hold on to the title until WrestleMania 37, where she faced off with the 2021 women's Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair in the first-ever WrestleMania main event to consist of two black women, a moment that moved Sasha to tears when the bell rang. Belair became the new champion, but that match still holds a special place in Sasha's heart to this day.

After WrestleMania 37, Sasha was still a part of the main event scene in WWE, but she didn't seem to be the focal point anymore, and by the start of 2022, she had been shifted back to the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship picture, this time with Naomi as her partner. The two would be successful in capturing the gold at WrestleMania 38, but there was little to no direction for them as champions, and they were even slated to challenge for singles titles over the summer rather than defending their gold as a duo.

These creative frustrations would prove too much for both Sasha and Naomi, as on May 16, 2022, they walked out of WWE. According to reports, they walked into the office of John Laurinaitis, placed their belts on his desk, and walked out of the company for real, much to the shock of fans and WWE officials, who suspended both women immediately. Throughout the rest of the year, there were talks on bringing them back to the company, but nothing materialized, and by the end of the year, Sasha was a free agent. 

At the turn of the new year, "The Legit Boss" Sasha Banks was no more; enter "The CEO," Mercedes Moné. Despite many people presuming that she would join All Elite Wrestling, on January 4, 2023, Mercedes Moné made her debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling at their Wrestle Kingdom 17 event in the Tokyo Dome, attacking then IWGP Women's Champion KAIRI, better known to WWE fans as Kairi Sane. It was confirmed that Moné had signed a one-year deal with NJPW that would also allow her to work for their Joshi sister promotion STARDOM.

Moné's first non-WWE match in 12 years came at NJPW's Battle in the Valley pay-per-view where she defeated KAIRI to become the new IWGP Women's Champion, and while the title had only been active for three months by the time Mercedes won it, she had grown up idolizing the women of All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, so to hold a title for a Japanese promotion was a dream come true. Her reign as champion led to her wrestling at Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo for NJPW, and the Yokohama Arena for STARDOM, the latter of which was the venue she lost the title in as Mayu Iwatani defeated her at the 2023 All-Star Grand Queendom event that April.

The following month saw Moné compete in a tournament to determine the first-ever NJPW STRONG Women's Champion, a title many saw as something that was designed specifically for Moné. However, disaster struck in the tournament final against Willow Nightingale as "The CEO" broke her ankle to such an extent that one doctor told her she might never wrestle again. Nightingale picked up the win, becoming the inaugural champion in the process, and Moné sat out injured for the rest of 2023.

After appearing in the crowd at the All In London 2023 pay-per-view, many fans suspected that when Mercedes Moné was medically cleared, she would be joining All Elite Wrestling, and in March 2024, that's exactly what happened. At the Big Business edition of "AEW Dynamite" in her hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, Moné was announced as AEW's newest signing. However, some people questioned whether or not she was actually ready to wrestle, as her first match wouldn't take place until two months after her debut.

That first match was against none other than the woman she faced when she broke her ankle, Willow Nightingale, who was the AEW TBS Champion. Moné would dethrone Willow at the 2024 Double or Nothing pay-per-view, and since that night, she hasn't looked back. One month later, she would finally get her hands on the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship by defeating Stephanie Vaquer at Forbidden Door, and in August, her AEW journey came full circle when she wrestled at the 2024 All In London pay-per-view at Wembley Stadium against Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D., exactly one year since her initial cameo.

Moné would go on to spend the first 16 months of her AEW career undefeated in singles competition, including matches she would work for the likes of NJPW and RevPro in between her AEW commitments. By July 2025, she had already captured four championships simultaneously, carrying six belts around in the process, but her quest for a seventh title was thwarted by "Timeless" Toni Storm at All In Texas, who retained her AEW Women's World Championship against "The CEO," ending her 16-month undefeated streak in the process. With that said, Moné's AEW journey is not over, and you can guarantee that the AEW Women's World Championship is in her sights.