Mercedes Mone (fka Sasha Banks) on Bringing Her Wrestling Persona to The Mandalorian

By Connor Casey

Mercedes Varnado, better known in the pro wrestling world as Mercedes Mone and Sasha Banks, returned to The Mandalorian for Season 3 as Koska Reeves earlier this month. The latest episode saw her and the rest of the surviving Mandalorians return to their home planet of Mandalore in an attempt to recapture it, only for Moff Gideon to spring a trap and try to force Katee Sackhoff's Bo Katan to give him back the Darksaber. His plan failed, but Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) wound up getting captured and Paz Vizla had to sacrifice himself in order for the remaining Mandalorians to escape Gideon's forces. 

Varnado first arrived on the show in Season 2 alongside Katan and Axe Wvoes (Simon Kassianides). The former WWE women's champion made an immediate impact by rescuing Baby Yoda and breaking out a few wrestling moves in action scenes, including a Tornado DDT. She talked about bringing aspects of her wrestling character into her performance during a recent appearance at Megacon.

"I really took a lot of myself and turned it up. I took a lot of my wrestling character, being a boss and a badass, and didn't take no for an answer and that could stand up to any man that wanted to step in her way and take him down and throw a tornado DDT. I wanted her to be who I am, just a badass and going in there with Katee, I had to step up my game because she is a legit badass," she said (h/t Fightful). 

Since leaving WWE at the start of the year, Varnado has debuted for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and won the IWGP Women's World Championship. She has also claimed she won't tell the full story about why she chose to leave the promotion. 

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 "You don't know the story. You're reading whatever you want to read and believe whatever you want to believe. Nobody knows the story because I haven't said anything, and I'm not going to say anything because that's just the classy boss that I am, and CEO," she said while at Planet Comic Con, albeit somewhat in character.

The season finale of The Mandalorian drops on Disney+ this Wednesday. Varnado's next match takes at Stardom's All Star Grand Queendom event on April 23 where she'll defend her IWGP title against Mayu Iwatani. 

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