Latest on Mercedes Moné's NJPW Future

Mercedes Moné made her return to professional wrestling this past January. The former Sasha Banks popped up at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17, confronting then-IWGP Women's Champion KAIRI, setting her sights on the title. Weeks later, Moné was champion. The rest of Moné's planned "world domination tour" did not exactly go as planned, as she suffered an ankle injury in a match to crown the inaugural NJPW STRONG Women's Champion. Moné was scheduled to win that match and the title but was forced to call an audible due to the mid-match injury. That setback has had Moné on the shelf since May.

When Will Mercedes Moné Return to NJPW?

New Japan Pro Wrestling plans to resume communication with Mercedes Moné once she's healthy.

Speaking to WrestlePurists, NJPW star and ambassador Rocky Romero noted he hasn't spoken with Moné in a minute but plans to continue talks upon her in-ring return.

"I honestly don't have an update right now. I hope that I'll be talking to her agent and her maybe soon-ish, but I honestly don't have any update about anything," Romero said. "The last thing I had heard was that she was recovering well and basically, they were going to let me know or reach out when she was getting close to a comeback."

Moné has wrestled four matches for New Japan since making her debut in January. She has also competed in Stardom, Japan's all-female wrestling promotion. Outside of the Far East, Moné has been tied to AEW for some time, as she was specifically shown in the crowd at AEW ALL IN: London this past August.

"There's definitely still communication," Romero continued. "Obviously, I don't know what she's going to want to do when she comes back for sure. Especially coming back from a serious injury that kind of messed her up, maybe messed up her timeframe of what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it. I really couldn't speak for her, I don't think it would be fair."

While Romero is optimistic that there is a future with Moné in NJPW, he noted all parties are happy with what was accomplished so far.

"I think that she thoroughly enjoyed her time in New Japan and New Japan loved working with her and obviously would love to continue to work with her," Romero added. "But I think everybody's pretty happy with the work that we've done."

New Japan reportedly wanted to book NJPW STRONG Women's Champion Giulia against Moné, but Giulia's rumored departure to WWE has that big match in flux.