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Sasha Banks left WWE last year and made her NJPW debut as Mercedes Mone at the Wrestle Kingdom 17 show in January 2023. It was a milestone moment for her, and her real-life friend Bayley was present in the audience to witness it.
Mercedes Mone attacked KAIRI at Wrestle Kingdom 17. The CEO recently made her in-ring debut for NJPW when she wrestled the former NXT star at the company's Battle In The Valley pay-per-view in San Jose, California.
During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Bayley spoke about Mercedes' NJPW debut and claimed that Mone wouldn't be where she is without WWE.
"I literally flew out right after RAW, got to Japan two hours before the show started and raced over there and met everybody there and sat in the crowd, kinda incognito you know. It was so magical to be there for her [Mercedes Mone] and I knew just how important that was to her and she just loves this. Everybody knows how much she loves this and how much wrestling means to her and how much WWE means to her. She wouldn’t be there without WWE so I think it meant a lot to here that I was there for her. I made it right back in time to California so I can fly out for the live events and it was so worth it," said Bayley. [From 0:57 to 01:42]
Bayley spoke about Sasha Banks/Mercedes Mone and WWE
Sasha Banks and Bayley were former women's tag team champions, a title they were the inaugural champions of. The duo won the titles at the 2019 Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event.
During the same conversation with Ariel Helwani, Bayley stated that the former Legit Boss had been there for her in the past, and she wanted to be there in Japan for Mercedes' big moment.
"Two days [when asked how long she was in Japan for]. No, I went there on my own. There’s a few of us that flew out there just because she’s been there for all my big moments, you know, even as she hasn’t been a part of the company and I’ve made my return and I’ve had my matches, like she’s there for me so of course I wanna be there for her and we’ve done so much together in WWE so she means so much to me and so much to the wrestling world, I have to be there for this moment," Bayley said. [From 0:25 to 0:56]
Sasha Banks and Naomi left the company in May 2022. The latter hasn't been seen since, while Mercedes Mone is now the IWGP Women's Champion. It remains to be seen if either of them will be back in WWE in the future.
Please credit the original source with H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling if you use any quotes from the article.
