Even though Mercedes Mone has only been a part of NJPW for a little more than a week, it appears that she has already offended some people.
At Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4, the former Sasha Banks made her NJPW debut by confronting KAIRI. This allowed Mone to challenge KAIRI for the IWGP Women’s Championship at the Battle in the Valley match on February 18.
Mone has been active on social media since her debut, posting pictures and videos of her working out with other Japanese wrestling stars.
Some NJPW employees don’t like Banks sharing pictures of themselves with stars from other organisations, according to Dave Meltzer’s revelation in the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Meltzer wrote: “There were people talking because of the belief Mone has been promoting Sendai Girls and Tokyo Joshi Pro more than Stardom and the IWGP women’s title. She posted photos from the Sendai Girls dojo saying she wanted to wrestle women that work for that promotion and Tokyo Joshi Pro. The feeling is that now that she’s with Bushiroad, she (should) be only promoting Bushiroad companies in Japan.”
Mone didn’t attend any Stardom events or the dojo while she was in Japan, and Meltzer stated that it’s likely no one ever articulated the Japanese way of thinking about this to her.
Once Mone vs. KAIRI was revealed, NJPW sold out the Battle in the Valley.
