Mercedes Mone On Her Busy Schedule And Lucha Libre Training

Mercedes Moné was off television for seven months while continuing to train for her in-ring return at NJPW Battle In the Valley. In a new interview with NJPW, Moné said at one point that she lived in Mexico for a month while training in the Lucha libre style and that her NJPW debut at Wrestle Kingdom 17 earlier this month "has been a dream" since she was young.

The new interview is one of the first times Moné has given details about her schedule since leaving WWE last year. "I've been working every single day since I left there," Moné said. "I've been making movies, making TV shows, magazines, modeling, I haven't stopped. But wrestling has always been my number one love, and there was no soul-searching involved in coming back to wrestling. I went to Mexico for a month in October and lived there."

Moné also said she trained with several Mexican wrestling legends, including Skayde, Ricky Marvin, and Bandido, during her hiatus. "There are so many legends there to learn from," she said. "To train at that altitude as well, it gets you ready from a conditioning perspective so much faster as well. But yeah, I was ready in October, and I knew coming to Japan was exactly what I wanted."

The former WWE Superstar stayed busy during her time away from wrestling, but returning to the ring was always on her mind. "I was shooting a movie in between training in Mexico then, but I knew I was going to Japan to train in December whether it was doing something with New Japan or not. When it all came together with NJPW though for Wrestle Kingdom it was 'wow, OK, this is really happening'. This has been a dream literally since I was a teenager."