If you haven’t followed Mercedes Moné‘s belt collector storyline/gimmick here at Cageside, I’ll let you know up front that I generally enjoy Moné‘s work and would call myself a long-time fan of it. Because of that — and my continued questioning of the (apparently strongly held) belief some wrestling fans have that the belt collector angle is bad for either AEW, the independent promotions involved, the fans and rosters of both, wrestling in general, or all of the above — I’ve already been labeled
a stan by some.
All of that to say, I’m gonna try to present this as straight-down-the-middle as possible. But I also like being right, and this is more evidence that I very well could be… so there may be some smugness. Based on some of her critics’ reactions to 12 Belts Moné, we’re guessing they don’t like smugness. Apologies in advance.
Moné won her 12th championship on Sunday in Western Canada, wrapping up a busy weekend that saw her retain the CMLL Women’s title on Friday night in Mexico City, defeat Mina Shirakawa for the interim ROH Women’s Television belt on Saturday at AEW WrestleDream in St. Louis, then fly to Winnipeg to become WPW Women’s champ by beating Jody Threat. That flurry of wrestling news stirred up the debate about The CEO, which honestly is always simmering just below the surface of the wrestle web, and has been since not long after she first turned heel in NXT as Sasha Banks way back in 2013.
In response to folks loudly questioning indie promoters’ decision to book Moné, on Monday someone claiming to be a Winnipeg Pro Wrestling official chimed into the debate on the promotion’s X/Twitter, posting:
Hey there
I’m the one that booked [Moné], picked her up from the airport and was with her all day. I’m the one that sees the ticket sales and budgets, I’m the one that saw kids crying and shaking when they met her
Hope this helps
This is just supposition on my part, but the tweeter may have been WPW co-owner Devin Bray. Before the show Sunday, Bray spoke to Post Wrestling. What Bray told Post’s Jack Wannan backed up the videos of a packed Burton Cummings Theatre on Sunday for Ultimo Moné vs. the former TNA Knockouts Tag champ:
“We attracted, I’d say, a couple of hundred more people who didn’t know we existed who live here and are wrestling fans. So it just took us to a whole new level.”
Bray also explained how he came to book the AEW star, something they said came together “really fast”:
“I saw she tweeted a couple of months ago, ‘I want to go to Canada’ or something. I was like, f***, if she’s saying that, I’ll just shoot my shot.”
Tacking a trip to Manitoba onto a two-country work weekend is no small commitment. And while he’s not an impartial source, according to the man who is paying Mercedes — AEW’s Tony Khan — she’s not making much, if any, money from her indie bookings.
Khan brought it up while talking about Moné’s weekend with Josh Martinez of Z100 New York and the Superstar Crossover podcast:
“With all the commitments Mercedes has taken on — I think it’s really impressive. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that shows it’s not about pure greed and money for Mercedes because a lot of these places she’s wrestling — Winnipeg, Canada, Denmark — they’re not the highest paying places. She’s not really making money from these.
”She loves wrestling. She loves building up companies, she loves meeting new young stars and she really cares about the craft and the sport of wrestling.”
Which is what Mercedes Moné has always told us she planned to do. Will it ultimately be successful? Time will tell. But for now, it sounds like she’s mostly just wagering TK’s money and her own reputation on her vision.
Factor that into your own take on Moné and her ongoing belt collector program as you will.
