-- In one of the worst kept secrets over the past couple of years, Mercedes Mone (fka Sasha Banks in WWE) made her debut with AEW last night on Dynamite, with Tony Khan quickly tweeting that she was #AllElite, suggesting that she her contract with the company is for multiple years and fightfulselect.com published a story with more details around her status over the last three or four months.
-- As reported before, the belief is that Mone and AEW agreed to a contract "well over two months" ago with the belief being that it was likely in the December timeframe around the time when she secured several trademarks related to her name. While details of her contract are not yet known, it is believed that the deal includes the ability to continue to work for NJPW "in a big way" with the Japanese promotion believing and hoping that they can pick up where they left off with her last year before Mone's serious injury that effectively sidelined her for ten months and required two surgeries.
-- Going back to the summer of 2023, AEW brought in Mone and showed her in the audience at All In and that time, they believed there was an understanding that the two sides would be able to hammer out a deal and work together in the future once she was cleared to wrestle. However, by early December, the two sides were apart on terms and Mone re-entered into negotiations with WWE, who also couldn't come to terms with her. Soon thereafter, WWE began promoting a "former WWE champion" to appear on the WWE Day 1 Raw (who later turned out to be The Rock) and rumors began circulating that it could in fact be Mone resurrecting her Sasha Banks character. WWE sources though quickly shot down those rumors and indicated that they were no longer talking to her, wished her well in her future and expected her to sign and appear elsewhere imminently.
-- When it started becoming apparent that AEW would be where Mone ended up, dates such as January 3 and January 10 were tossed around but those were shot down because Mone was not physically cleared at that point. A few weeks later, with WWE Royal Rumble set to air and rumors of surprise entrants, Mone's name was once again mentioned but by then, WWE officials were strongly under the assumption that Mone had already signed with AEW as comments were made that they were not interested in "tampering" with her. When Royal Rumble came and went, it pretty much became a foregone conclusion that Mone was bound for AEW and when the announcement of a Dynamite in Boston was announced, it was all but confirmed.
