Bully Ray & Mark Henry Want To See Mercedes Mone Return In The U.S. Or At AEW All In
Last night saw NJPW star Mercedes Mone injured in the finals of the tournament to crown the very first NJPW Strong Women's Champion, possibly with a broken ankle. After the injury, the match was reportedly changed on the fly, with Willow Nightingale pinning Mone and winning the title. This morning on "Busted Open Radio," co-hosts Bully Ray and Mark Henry discussed Mone's injury, and put forth their ideas on how they'd like to see the former WWE star return to wrestling following her recovery.
"If I knew right now that Mercedes Mone had a shot in hell of being at Wembley, knowing that I'm at about [68,000] sold ... I'd have her release a video on social media immediately saying, 'You know what? This injury is not keeping me down. I will see you in Wembley on August [27th]," Ray said. Henry agreed, stating that it would likely sell an extra 10,000 tickets.
According to Ray and Henry's estimates, Mone will likely be out for somewhere between four and six months. If that's accurate, it would disqualify her from making a return at AEW's Wembley Stadium show, as it takes place in just over three months. However, if she were to stage a miraculous recovery from her injury, or if it is perhaps not as severe as feared, there's no denying such a major platform would be the perfect stage for Mone to debut in AEW.
However NJPW decides to re-debut Mone after she recovers from injury, Ray and Henry both believe the right move would be to make it happen in front of fans who would be more familiar with her compared to the standard NJPW audience in Japan. Ray pointed out that Mone's reception at the Tokyo Dome was "good," but it could have been much stronger with the right crowd.