The Road Not Taken: AEW's Mercedes Mone Reveals Original Plans For WWE Return At WrestleMania 39

That would have been different. The rise of AEW has changed the wrestling industry, as there is now another large, well funded wrestling promotion in the United States. This has opened a new place for a lot of wrestlers to go, some of whom are able to go someone other than WWE as part of a major deal. Now we know some more about how a former WWE Superstar made the decision to change.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: LOOK: Rhea Ripley Receives A Rather Unique Honor

During the latest edition of her Mone Mag newsletter, AEW’s Mercedes Mone revealed that she had planned to return to WWE for WrestleMania 39. Mone had left the company in May 2022 due to a creative dispute with Vince McMahon. The following year, Mone had been at a Los Angeles Rams game in SoFi Stadium and said that she needed to be there for WrestleMania, signaling a return to the company. She then met AEW President Tony Khan, who convinced her to sign with AEW instead. There is no word on if Mone still plans to return to WWE at some point in her career.

It would have been big. Check out what Mone has done at WrestleMania before:

Opinion: This is one of those things that shows you how far wrestling has come in just a few years. While returning to WWE is certainly an acceptable way to go, it might not be everyone’s first choice. Now though, there is a second choice to be made, which is due to AEW. That is the kind of change that makes things all the more interesting, and now we are likely to see something like this again and again in the future.