Mercedes Mone opened up about a variety of topics during a recent podcast appearance.
On Thursday, The Kick Rocks podcast published an interview with the 32-year-old where she discussed topics such as Bayley winning the Royal Rumble, her decision to walk out of WWE, and what could be next for her wrestling career.
On Bayley winning the Royal Rumble:
She's going to love this that I'm putting her over. Usually, I'm the one that's being put over because I beat her all the time but I am nothing but so proud and so happy for her.
I get to see her from afar do all this and see all her hard work, and hear her talk about her dreams and her hopes and what she wants to do in that business, and to see it come through and to see so much magic that that woman can make...
She does so much for that division and I’m just beyond proud to know, to me, that she is going to main event WrestleMania because that’s how it should be. I am just beyond the moon for her because she had a crazy past three years coming from the pandemic, getting injured, seeing her go through that, make her return, and make her return with IYO Sky and Dakota Kai.
She is just so selfless and cares so much that I just love cheering her on and can't wait to see her just go.
She also spoke about the current state of women's wrestling:
(This is) the most that women have ever been a part of this business. To see how many women are at pro wrestling schools, to see how many women that are at different promotions from independent to Stardom to TNA to AEW to WWE, like I have no words for it. I started in WWE with eight women in developmental. I don't even know how many there are now. There's probably 30 and then you have the main roster and then you have AEW, who has an insane roster, and then you go to Stardom...
It's beyond my biggest dreams. It's everything I dreamt for because I watched wrestling since I was a kid and I was like, 'How can I do this like the men?' and I discovered Japanese pro-wrestling and I was like, 'Oh wow, they do do it like the men and harder,' so I always saw that but wanted that in the United States and I always say that I always wanted to change the definition of what it is to be a Diva.
When asked if "Diva" is a dirty word to her, Mone responded:
Now, no because it means so much but back then I could never watch it with my mom, or my grandma, or my grandma would make fun of me. I'd just be like, 'Yeah Grandma, that's what I want to do.'
Those were the times. We weren't treated equally, we weren't treated the same, we weren't given the same respect.
Mone then spoke about being told she had a "career-ending injury."
It's been crazy, almost 10 months now from a freak accident...or did Willow push me? Or did someone pay off that ref and make the top rope slippery? I don't know but I've spent the last 10 months thinking about how much unfinished business I have in wrestling.
I was so focused and so ready for my plans to succeed in 2023 and for that to happen to me, it taught me so much about life and it just taught me that I needed to slow down even more and to heal because prior to that a lot happened to me, a lot of hurt happened and a lot of healing needed to happen and I was still just going so fast. Because I love wrestling so much and I couldn't be away from it but I wasn't healed inside. I think it was just a message like ‘you've got to slow down and figure out what’s next for you and what are your plans, your plans are good but I think you need to reevaluate them a little bit more.’
Mone continued to say that she'll be releasing music this year and has some more acting roles upcoming. She also teased that she's "finally found her wrestling home" as well.
Mone said:
I've been making some really big moves. Big business moves and big money moves.
Just this whole time of healing, I got to work on so many other things that I have such a passion for. I think fans are going to be really excited that finally I'm going to be releasing some music this year. I'm still acting and got some amazing, amazing things in the works and I got to audition for incredible roles in movies. We've got to keep manifesting great things about that.
And I finally think I found a home in a wrestling place. So, it's really, really exciting and I'm excited about these big money moves.
Later, she would add:
I think I might have finally made my decision and I think it'll be really soon.
I've been posting my training videos, I've been training really, really hard with Tyler Breeze at Flatbacks and Shawn Spears, shout out to Hybrid school with Funaki in San Antonio, and the New Japan Dojo in LA. I've been working so hard to get back to this place that I love because little do people know, I was told that this is a career ending injury. I like screamed at my doctor and surgeon, I said 'no, it's not.'
I'm going to come back really soon and I'm going to have just the greatest time, the greatest matches, the greatest career that I've had yet because I see it, I feel it, and I know it. Soon.