Mercedes Mone suffered an injury at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s recent Resurgence event while facing AEW’s Willow Nightingale for the new NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. Fightful Select‘s Sean Ross Sapp offered an update on the former WWE star this week, noting that she was originally booked to beat Nightingale for the title but had to change up the finish mid-match. As for the injury, it’s still unclear if Mone broke something in her leg, ankle or foot or merely suffered a sprain as there’s too much swelling to identify the severity of her injury.
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As for when she’ll be back in action, Sapp wrote, “Right now we haven’t heard of her planned for any imminent matches due to the injury. Mercedes was said to have been in a ton of pain after the match, and was helped through the back by Tamina and others.”
Given her status with both Stardom and NJPW, many AEW fans were assuming she’d be involved in the Forbidden Door crossover event on June 25 in Toronto. Tony Khan discussed her status for the show prior to Double or Nothing on a media conference call.
“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 (h/t Fightful).
“Frankly, now, even going forward, I don’t think anybody but her knows when she’ll be ready to come back to the ring. I have so much respect for Mercedes and I think she’s been a great champion all over the world, including New Japan. She would have been a great first-ever STRONG Women’s Champion, but I think we have a great champion in Willow and we’ll look to utilize Willow in AEW and possibly ROH, and take advantage of that new beautiful belt she’s holding,” he continued.
AEW Double or Nothing 2023 Results
- (Buy-In) The Hardys & HOOK def. Ethan Page & The Gunns
- AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy retains in a 21-Man Blackjack Battle Royal
- Adam Cole def. Chris Jericho (Unsanctioned Match)
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: FTR def. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal (Mark Briscoe as Special Guest Referee)
- AEW TNT Championship: Wardlow def. Christian Cage (Ladder Match)
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm def. Jamie Hayter
- AEW World Trios Championship: The House of Black def. The Acclaimed (Open House Match)
- AEW TBS Championship: Jade Cargill def. Taya Valkyrie
- AEW TBS Championship: Kris Statlander def. Jade Cargill
- AEW World Championship: MJF def. Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara and “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
- The Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta) def. The Elite (Kenny Omega, “Hangman” Adam Page, The Young Bucks) (Anarchy in the Arena Match)
