Mercedes Mone Refuses to Comment on Her WWE Departure

Mecedes Monè (fka Sasha Banks) will not address the elephant in the room regarding her WWE departure. Banks and Naomi chose to walk out just before an episode of Monday Night Raw last May over issues with how they were being booked as the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. The pair were suspended indefinitely, stripped of the tag titles and repeatedly chastised on WWE TV by the commentary team. Both women kept quiet situation in the months that followed, making various red-carpet appearances teasing other business ventures. While the company never officially commented on it, Banks was officially off the roster at the start of 2023 and made her New Japan Pro-Wrestling debut at Wrestle Kingdom 17.

Monè has since won the IWGP Women's World Championship and has teased wrestling in various promotions in what she's calling a "World Domination Tour." But in all of her interviews and public appearances since the start of the year, she's never actually addressed what led to her departure from WWE. But much like with other backstage drama involving "The Boss" — various absences from TV, getting pulled from a title match at SummerSlam 2021 seconds before the match began — she's not talking. 

Monè was recently at Planet Comic Con and claimed nobody knows the true story of what happened (h/t Fightful) — "You don't know the story. You're reading whatever you want to read and believing 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 then discussed other wrestlers who chose to go back to WWE after being released — "One thing, it's up to them. It's up to Dakota (Kai) and everyone else that wants to come back. That's great for them and awesome. That's their dream, but I went after mine, which is going to Japan. You have to follow your heart and follow your soul and follow your dreams. This was always, always, always a dream of mine that I never got to accomplish. As I am growing in my career, I had been in WWE for almost ten years, I had to have a change and I had to feel something different in my heart and my soul. I had to go after a whole new dream, a whole new chapter, and a whole new destiny for me. This is where I want to be and what I want to make happen for me. That's it. This is what I'm going for and this is my dream."