Mercedes Mone went down with a leg injury at the NJPW Resurgence event back on May 21, resulting in her losing to Willow Nightingale in the finals to crown the inaugural NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. The injury suddenly called Mone’s summer plans into question, as she had previously teased working the AEW/New Japan crossover event Forbidden Door 2023 later this month in Toronto. She said back in March, “June so far, I think I could be open, July might be open but I gotta get that phone call. Gotta get that phone call from (AEW’s Tony Khan).”
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Khan addressed that situation prior to the Double or Nothing pay-per-view last month. Footage of Nightingale beating Mone has also popped up on AEW Dynamite, which technically marked the first time Mone has been seen on AEW programming.
“Going forward, it does make things interesting because nobody really knows, besides Mercedes and myself what was going to happen there and what the future would hold for her, whether that was competing exclusively for New Japan or potentially also whether she would be at Forbidden Door,” Khan said at the time. It was then reported via Fightful Select‘s Sean Ross Sapp that it was unclear if Mone had broken something or had merely suffered a severe sprain.
Sports Illustrated then provided an update on Mone on Wednesday during an interview with Khan — “While Khan would not definitively comment on whether she would have been part of the card, any such plans were derailed last month when she broke her ankle in a match against Willow Nightingale to crown the first NJPW Strong women’s champion. Multiple sources close to Khan have confirmed that there were significant discussions with Moné, which bodes well for a potential appearance in the future.”
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Card (As of Now)
- IWGP United States Championship: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay
- Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
AEW Dynamite June 7, 2023 Card
- AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. Swerve Strickland
- AEW TBS Championship: Kris Statlander vs. Anna Jay.A.S.
- Ricky Starks vs. Jay White (FTR & Juice Robinson are banned from ringside)
- “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry & Hook vs. Preston Vance & Dralistico (Tornado Tag Match)
- Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta) vs. Chaos (Rocky Romero & The Best Friends)
- MJF Promo
