Who is Mercedes Mone? Everything we know about Snoop Dogg’s cousin

Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado, professionally known as Mercedes Mone, is a pro wrestler currently signed up with the All Elite Wrestling promotion company. The 32-year-old has made her mark in wrestling sports since her debut in WWE.

She is the current AEW TBS Champion and the World Wonder Ring Strong Women’s Champion. Furthermore, Mone is a five-time holder of the WWE Raw Women's Championship.

Mercedes Mone is related to Hollywood royalty, including West Coast hip-hop legends Snoop Dogg and Daz Dillinger, the R&B icon Brandy, and rapper Ray J.

Mone has said that her cousin, Snoop Dogg, who was inducted into the WWE Celebrity Wing Hall of Fame in 2016, is a major supporter of her wrestling career.

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Mercedes Mone’s wrestling career and her relationship with Snoop Dogg

In an interview with WTOP News, Mercedes Mone shared that her bond with her cousin Snoop Dogg grew stronger when he took her to WrestleMania 24 at age 16. She explained that their mutual love of wrestling brought them closer during that time.

Mercedes Mone started professional wrestling in 2010 in the Chaotic Wrestling territory under Independent Wrestling. She won the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship and signed with WWE in 2012. The 32-year-old wrestler adopted the ring name Sasha Banks in the developmental territory NXT. She later won the NXT Championship.

She faced Bayley at NXT Takeover: Respect in 2015. This event became the first women’s match to headline a NXT Takeover. Additionally, it was the longest women’s contest in WWE history and the first Iron Woman match. It was awarded Match of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and Banks was named Woman of the Year by the same magazine."

Mone's achievements in the NXT section saw her promotion to WWE’s main roster in 2015. She would go on to hold the WWE Raw Women’s Championship title five times. In 2019, Banks and Charlotte Flair made history as the first women to headline a WWE pay-per-view event. They also competed in the Hell in a Cell match and became the first female duo to receive the PWI Award for Feud of the Year.

Banks continued her exploits in WWE by winning the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with Bayley at the Elimination Chamber. In 2020, she won the Smackdown Women’s Championship at Hell in a Cell. In addition, she secured the titles of WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion and WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion.

She was consequently named Wrestler of the Year by Sports Illustrated. At the 37th anniversary of the Wrestlemania event, Banks and her opponent Bianca Belair made history as the first black women to headline a Wrestlemania event.

In 2022, Sasha Banks left the WWE due to creative differences. She spoke about her decision to leave in an episode of the Kick Rocks Wrestling Podcast in March 2024:

"The hardest decision I've ever had to make in my whole life, but it's the proudest. It's crazy because I would not be sitting here, living the best version of my life and getting to be everything I've ever dreamt of and more."

In January 2023, she debuted under the ring name Mercedes Mone for Wrestle Kingdom 17 and became a one-time IWGP Women’s Champion. After her contract expired, she signed with AEW and debuted in March 2024, winning the AEW TBS Championship.

In an interview with WTOP in September 2024, Mone discussed how Snoop Dogg had helped her wrestling career:

"When I was 16, he took me to WrestleMania 24, and that's when we really started to become close. Our bond is the love of wrestling; he grew up such a wrestling fan and I grew up watching wrestling, so when we went to WrestleMania together ... I told him one day I wanted to be a wrestler."

Snoop Dogg supported Mercedes Mone by contributing to her former WWE theme song and accompanying her to the ring at her WrestleMania match in 2016.

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