Why Did AEW’s Newest Star Mercedes Moné (aka Sasha Banks) Leave WWE in 2022?

Mercedes Moné is finally, officially, All Elite. One of the most popular professional wrestlers has finally debuted in All Elite Wrestling after nearly two years away from World Wrestling Entertainment. But why did Mercedes, better known as Sasha Banks, leave WWE?

After months of teases and a Dynamite taping hyped as much as CM Punk’s 2021 debut, Mercedes Moné is back on weekly episodic television after a decade in WWE and NXT. Maybe we’ll find out more about why she left as her presence in the States expands.

Professional wrestler Mercedes Moné, aka Sasha Banks in WWE, real name Mercedes Varnado (we’ll just refer to her as Mercedes going forward), was one of WWE’s biggest stars, not just biggest stars in the women’s division. In addition to wrestling, she's acts in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and co-starred in the 2023 action film The Collective.

Mercedes closed Night 1 of WrestleMania 37 in 2021 against Bianca Belair, the first time two African American women headlined a WWE Premium Live Event (formerly known as Pay-Per-Views). At WrestleMania 38 in 2022 she won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship along with Naomi. A few weeks later in May 2022, she and Naomi walked out of the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.

At the time of the May 16, 2022 walkout from Monday Night Raw, PWInsider reported that Naomi and Mercedes left over creative differences with Vince McMahon.

In December 2022 on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that discussion between Mercedes and the WWE broke down over salary: “They [WWE] had been talking to both of them, but they had been talking to her about a return and they were very far apart on money. What she was asking for was a very high number for a WWE woman wrestler, but if you look at the amount of money that WWE takes in, she would still be underpaid. Everyone from Roman Reigns to Brock Lesnar is underpaid.”

On March 17, 2023, Ringside News reported that Mercedes talked about why she left at the Planet Comicon in Kansas City: “First of all, nobody knows the story. You don’t know the story, but you’re reading whatever you want to read and believe whatever you want to believe. Nobody knows the story because I haven’t said anything, and I’m not going to say anything because that’s just the classy boss that I am. The CEO, but one thing, it’s up to them.”

Whether Mercedes left WWE over booking decisions, financial compensation, the desire to wrestler for other promotions (in addition to signing with AEW she competed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and World Wonder Ring Stardom in the first half of 2023), or for more freedom to act on shows like The Mandalorian, we don’t know. Mercedes still isn’t saying exactly what happened.

Just a few days before signing with WWE’s number one competitor, Mercedes appeared on The Kick Rocks Wrestling Podcast. While the clip is titled “Mercedes Varnado on why she left WWE,” the wrestler does not actually talk about why she left WWE.

She does say, “I know I’m going to be back there [WWE] one day, OK, so it’s not over. Like I said, I have a lot of unfinished business in wrestling, in a lot of places.”

On her March 13, 2024 AEW debut in her hometown of Boston, Mercedes said, “I need to be here. I want to be here. AEW is the only place that can take this revolution global.”

Mercedes and the entire AEW roster be able to travel the globe when they return to Wembley Arena for AEW All In: London 2024 on Aug. 25, 2024. Mercedes will most likely also return to the rings of Japan; AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling also have a working relationship.