Mercedes Mone has stated she needs to return to WWE at some point. (Credit score: Etsuo Hara/Getty Pictures)
AEW went all in on its newest acquisition Mercedes Mone, and that would definitely bode nicely for each lady in each WWE and AEW.
Based on the most recent Wrestling Observer E-newsletter (h/t WrestlingNews.co), Mone—identified beforehand as Sasha Banks in WWE—was looking for “Becky Lynch-level cash” whereas discussing a possible contract with WWE earlier than finally opting to signal with AEW. Whereas Mone’s desired contract finally brought on WWE to “walk away” from negotiations with the previous multi-time ladies’s champion, Mone was in a position to land what could possibly be a trend-setting cope with AEW as an alternative.
Based on the WON, “A feminine WWE star stated they heard the quantity was sufficient to make her the highest-paid lady in professional wrestling. This star was stated to be thrilled at AEW making such a proposal and completely happy Mone took it as a result of it opened up a greater marketplace for feminine expertise to earn high greenback.”
In different phrases, AEW—and Mone, specifically—could have damaged the unofficial pay scale in ladies’s wrestling.
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For years upon years, the checklist of WWE’s highest-paid stars has been dominated by its male superstars, reminiscent of Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and John Cena. Nonetheless, high-profile ladies’s wrestlers, starting from Lynch to Charlotte Aptitude, have damaged by way of that cup ceiling and altered the narrative concerning what it means to be a high star in skilled wrestling.
Simply final yr, Aptitude, a 15-time ladies’s champion, signed a blockbuster contract that made her one of many highest-paid ladies in WWE historical past and rightfully so given the entire success she’s had contained in the squared circle. Now, Lynch finds herself with an expiring contract and is in an awesome place to comply with in Aptitude’s footsteps by touchdown an historic deal, one that may put WWE’s feminine stars on a extra stage enjoying subject with their male counterparts.
Within the preferrred state of affairs, Mone’s AEW contract will set a brand new precedent, one which paves the way in which for ladies’s wrestlers in each AEW and WWE to money in in a manner that they haven’t all through most of professional wrestling historical past.
That very same star in Meltzer’s aforementioned report famous that Mone’s deal should be a “vital development for ladies” at a time after they can lay declare to being among the many largest stars in both WWE or AEW. That holds true for quite a few world champions and principal occasion caliber stars, reminiscent of Lynch, Aptitude, Rhea Ripley, Britt Baker and Saraya, but in addition for stars decrease on the cardboard.
Although Mone’s deal apparently falls short of the rumored $5 million per yr payday, Mone’s AEW contract might pressure WWE’s hand. Based on the WON (h/t WrestlingNews.co), AEW supplied “extra money than WWE” did to its three latest marquee signings in Mone, Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada.
Consequently, WWE missed out on all three stars, together with Mone, a proven draw in WWE whose AEW Dynamite debut topped one million viewers for the show-opening quarter hour this week. To place that into context, the present misplaced more than 370,000 viewers by its last phase, suggesting that followers tuned in to see Mone after which tuned out after they thought she was finished for the evening.
Whereas different main ladies’s wrestlers have additionally demonstrated that they are often significant ratings draws, they’re forcing AEW’s hand—and WWE’s hand too.
In any case, particularly compared to different professional athletes, WWE stars are woefully underpaid, a actuality that has been even much less type to feminine stars. However heading into this yr’s WrestleMania, matches like Lynch vs. Rhea Ripley and Bayley vs. Iyo Sky are among the many most anticipated bouts on the whole card, which has develop into the norm in WWE over the previous few years.
AEW has lagged behind when it comes to its dedication to ladies’s wrestling, however Mone is broadly seen as a top-tier star who will carry sweeping modifications to the way in which AEW President Tony Khan presents the corporate’s ladies’s division. These modifications are sure to increase to WWE too, with Lynch, a free agent-to-be, now in a position to make use of Mone’s deal as a launching pad for any contract negotiations with WWE.
Arguably the largest and most profitable ladies’s wrestler in WWE historical past, Lynch is probably in a category of her personal, however Mone isn’t far behind as probably the most recognizable wrestlers—whether or not male or feminine—not simply in wrestling however on the planet of popular culture.
As extra ladies’s wrestlers have begun to ascertain themselves as pivotal acts in WWE and AEW, Mone’s deal is only the start. Extra blockbuster contracts must be on the horizon, and all ladies’s wrestlers can be higher off due to it.
