On January 4th during the first big New Japan Pro Wrestling show of the year, fans would see the first post-WWE move from seven time women’s champion Sasha Banks. Taking the new name Mercedes Mone, she would appear following KAIRI successfully defending the IWGP Women’s Championship against Tam Nakano in a high paced sprint of a match. Mone is set to face KAIRI for the belt at Battle In The Valley next month, but already made a backstage mistake that has led to her staring on the wrong foot.
Sasha Banks Has Been Promoting Sendai Girls & TJPW More Than Stardom Or NJPW
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer would report that Mone might have already gotten herself in some trouble – due to posting pictures of her social media from the Sendai Girls dojo, despite now being linked to BushiRoad. Meltzer would publish the following about Mone and her potential backstage heat.
“There were people talking because of the belief Mone has been promoting Sendai Girls and Tokyo Joshi Pro more than Stardom and the IWGP women’s title. She posted photos from the Sendai Girls dojo saying she wanted to wrestle women that work for that promotion and Tokyo Joshi Pro. The feeling is that now that she’s with Bushiroad, she should be only promoting Bushiroad companies in Japan.”
Another layer to this comes in the fact that Mone did not attend any Stardom events or the Stardom dojo while in Japan, despite soon being tasked with working with the company and it’s talent. Needless to say, these combined are not a great start to her reputation in the region.
A Different Company Culture Than She’s Used Too
Had Mone simply entered Japan as a freelancer, this would not have been an issue. However, companies in Japan have a deep sense of loyalty, and this could have been viewed as Mone already ignoring that. It will likely be solved fairly quickly, with Mone entering a whole new work culture in Japan – and having previous links to Sendai Girls, having trained there with Meiko Satomura in the past.
There is also a strong possibility that this issue is simply ignored, due to the status of Mone as a proven draw – already helping to boost live viewership of Wrestle Kingdom and sell out Battle in the Valley. She will pick up some of the new quirks of working in Japan over time, but for now – is valuable enough to not cut her off due to a small issue.
Should Mone focus more on promoting the companies she’s contracted to work with? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
