Possible speculation on why Mercedes Moné (fka Sasha Banks) is hesitant to sign with AEW 

AEW fans have long since clamored for Mercedes Moné to be signed to the promotion, but up until now, that has yet to happen. Dave Meltzer recently speculated why this could be the case, and noted that she might be thinking of a WWE return.

Moné and Trinity Fatu (Naomi) walked out of WWE over a year ago while reigning as the women's tag team champions. Fans were initially shocked by the news but quickly began to fantasy book their AEW debuts.

Dave Meltzer recently speculated in the latest Wrestling Observer Radio that All Elite Wrestling's habit of signing stars for long deals could be why Mercedes has not taken them up yet.

"I think she’s got the power to negotiate for three [years]. I’m sure AEW would want her for five [years]. But that would mean WWE is out of the question for many, many years. But she’s injured, but – broken ankle, you’ll be back. (…) As far as a free agent that’s out there, her and [CM] Punk would be the two biggest ones." [21:03 onward]

According to Dave Meltzer, it would only make sense that Tony Khan already made offers to Mercedes soon after her WWE release. During the same episode, the veteran journalist explained why this is plausible.

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Missed out on last week's AEW Rampage? Catch up with the results right here.

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Meltzer believes Mercedes Moné has proven her star power to AEW

Despite suffering a broken ankle in her match against Willow Nightingale, many believe that the former WWE Superstar is slowly proving that she has always been a major star all along.

During the same episode, Dave Meltzer expressed how big of a draw Mercedes Moné is after her NJPW Resurgence match.

"And she proved tonight, even though they didn’t sell out in Long Beach, they went from 1200 tickets to 2900 tickets, which is a pretty big increase once her name was announced. They announced the whole card, but she was the big draw, but probably Okada got the biggest pop out of anyone. So she can move tickets, certainly the first time in a lot of markets." [21:48 onward]

Meltzer added that there's likely a really particular reason why AEW hasn't signed Mercedes yet at this point, since he believes they wouldn't have wasted time to sign her. Only time will tell if they do end up picking her up or not.

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If you use any quotes in this article, please credit Wrestling Observer and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.