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The WWE and AEW rosters are stacked with rookies, rising stars, and veteran talents, some of whom have worked for both promotions. Many real-life friends and partners root for their counterparts working for the other company, and often, we hear of wrestlers visiting backstage at events run by the competition. A pair of Hall of Famers, Teddy Long and Bill Apter, familiar with Vince McMahon, are opening up on a recent situation and revealed how The Genetic Jackhammer would have handled it.
Bayley and Mercedes Moné made WWE history in NXT, and then on the main roster as members of the Four Horsewomen. They then became inaugural Women's Tag Team Champions as The Boss 'n' Hug Connection. The long-time friends and rivals continued to support each other after the former Sasha Banks left WWE. Bayley attended Moné's AEW and NJPW debuts, among others. The Role Model recently revealed that The CEO had secretly attended events of the Stamford-based company to support her, which Tony Khan seems to be fine with.
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Mr. McMahon never would have allowed something like the Bayley-AEW situation to happen, according to Teddy Long. On the latest episode of The Wrestling Time Machine, co-host Mac Davis asked the 2017 WWE Hall of Famer if McMahon would have given permission for something like this, or if the promotion was lightening up on the rules, letting employees visit other promotions and "be in the background." Long, who speaks fondly of working for McMahon, was clear in his stance.
"Well, I think they just started doing that. Like you said, maybe they loosened up a bit. Vince would never, he would never do anything like that," Teddy Long said. [From 5:29 to 5:36]
Bill Apter agreed with his colleague, he thought Vince McMahon never would've allowed this to happen. Mac asked Sportskeeda Wrestling's Senior Editor for his thoughts on the matter since he knew the WWE co-founder well, and Apter believes a talent would have been fined if they visited a rival promotion. Long interrupted the 2024 International Professional Wrestling Hall of Famer, and added an interesting observation:
"And Bill, you know Vince... you would've been fired, not fined." [From 5:50 to 5:55]
Check out his comments in the video below:
Apter agreed with the WWE Hall of Famer once again. The 55-year industry veteran added that a talent would more likely be fined and fired as the company had to get its money first. Long laughed and nodded in agreement.
Mercedes Moné advertised for AEW Beach Break
AEW will return to the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, IL, on May 14 for the fourth Beach Break special. Dynamite will air live that night, while Collision will be taped to air on Saturday, May 17.
While not officially announced for a TBS Championship defense as of now, Mercedes Moné is advertised for Beach Break 2025. It's not clear if she will be on Dynamite or Collision, but others listed with her are Kenny Omega, MJF, Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander, Swerve Strickland, and Jon Moxley.
Moxley is already booked for a Beach Break Dynamite match as he will defend the AEW World Championship against Samoa Joe. The match will take place inside a steel cage. This will be their first All Elite singles bout after Joe won their only WWE match during RAW in 2017.
