Mercedes Mone

Mercedes in February 2023

###

Fairfield, California, United Sates

**Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado** (born January 26, 1992) is an American professional wrestler, she is currently dual signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and its sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) under the ring name **Mercedes Mone**, where she is a former IWGP Women's Champion.

Regarded as one of the best women's wrestlers in the world and noted for her egotistical, glamorous, and luxurious onscreen character, Mercedes has also been recognized for her popularity within the audiences. She is best known for her time in WWE, where she performed under the ring name **Sasha Banks**. Mercedes won her first championship while in the developmental brand NXT, the NXT Women's Championship. Upon being promoted to the main-roster, she would also become a five-time Raw Women's Championship, a one-time SmackDown Women's Champion and a three-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion (alongside two different partners). Upon winning the SmackDown Women's Championship in October 2020, she became the Fourth Women's Triple Crown Champion and the Third Women's Grand Slam Champion.

Mercedes previously wrestled on the independent circuit before signing with WWE in 2012, where she was assigned to WWE's developmental territory NXT. She, along with fellow wrestlers and real-life best-friends, Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, known as the Four Horsewomen (of Wrestling), became one of the front-runners of the WWE's Women Evolution movement that revolutionized the Women's Professional Wrestling industry in North America. Mercedes was in the first women's match to ever headline an NXT TakeOver event, the first iron-woman match in WWE history, and the longest women's match in WWE history at the time with a length of 30 minutes. Upon moving to the main-roster, she became the first woman to headline a WWE pay-per-view event, the first woman to compete in a Hell in a Cell match. In 2021, at WrestleMania 37, Mercedes became the first African-American woman to jointly headline a WrestleMania, WWE's flagship event, in what was considered Wrestlemania's second all-women main event.

These performances and her popularity led her to be voted Woman of the Year, as well as having the Feud of the Year, being the first to achieve that feat, and the Match of Year in 2015, 2016 and 2020 by *Sports Illustrated* and *Pro Wrestling Illustrated*. She was also the third most tweeted about female athlete in 2021.

After leaving WWE due to creative issues, Merceds made her NJPW and Stardom debut on January 2023, at Wrestle Kingdom 17, where she challenged for the IWGP Women's Championship in her first appearance.

## Early life

Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado was born in Fairfield, California, on January 26, 1992, the daughter of Reo and Judith Varnado. Her mother is of German descent, while her father was African-American. Her family moved to various places, including Minnesota, to find schools and hospitals for her autistic brother Joshua. They settled in Boston, where she began her professional wrestling career. She went to school online and grew up watching All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW).

Mercedes, at 16 years old, attended Wrestlemania 21 on April 3, 2005, in her home state of California, in an event that marked John Cena's first WWE Championship win. It was also Eddie Guerrero's final WrestleMania event as he died in November that same year.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early Career

Varnado began training at Chaotic Wrestling (CW), based in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 2008. She made her in-ring debut, under the ring name Mercedes KV, on October 1, 2010, in an intergender tag team match where she teamed with Nikki Roxx in a losing effort to Alexxis and Danny E. KV and Roxx quickly formed an alliance, teaming together regularly and accompanying each other to ringside. On October 22, KV lost her debut singles match to Danny E, and lost a rematch to him on November 13. In June 2012, Kaestner-Varnado participated in a WWE tryout camp and on August 18, it was announced that she had been signed to a contract. She was assigned to NXT, WWE's developmental territory, where she adopted the ring name Sasha Banks.

### Hiatus (2022-2023)

Since May 2022, Mercedes, took a break from professional wrestling after walking off WWE's Monday Night Raw. Since October, Mercedes teased on her Twitter account that something "crazy" would be happening, with Mercedes disclosing what it would be. Since December it had been rumored that Mercedes's WWE contract would expire at the end of 2022, with WWE trying to renegotiate a new deal during the summer. Negotiations fell through with both parties being "very apart on money", as it was believed that she was done with WWE. It was later revealed by *Wrestling Observer Newsletter* journalist Dave Meltzer that Mercedes would appear at Wrestle Kingdom 17, based on a multiple dates agreement that she had signed with Bushiroad, which would allow her to work for both New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom), despite not wrestling at the WK event. Meltzer also revealed that her booking in Japan was not made through WWE but directly through her, and that inside Bushiroad, it was believed she would become a free agent at the start of January, thus being free to be able to take part in the event. Leading to January, Mercedes also registered multiple trademarks through her personal company, Soulnado Inc., with the trademarks being "Mercedes Mone", "Mone Talks". "Bank Mone" and "Statement Maker", with the later believed to be the name of a finishing move.

### NJPW and Stardom (2023–present)

After months of speculation, she made her debut appearance for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) on January 4, 2023, at Wrestle Kingdom 17. Going by the ring name **Mercedes Mone**, she confronted and subsequently attacked reigning IWGP Women's Champion KAIRI and announced that she had joined both NJPW and its sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom. This led to a title match between the two at Battle in the Valley on February 18, where Mone defeated KAIRI to become the new champion. In her first title defense at Sakura Genesis on April 8, Mone defeated AZM and Hazuki in a three-way match. After the match, Mone was challenged by Mayu Iwatani for the title at Stardom All Star Grand Queendom. On April 15, Mone made her Stardom debut attacking Iwatani after her match, establishing herself as a heel. At the event, on April 23, Mone lost the IWGP Women's Championship to Iwatani, ending her reign at 64 days.

On April 28, NJPW announced the creation of the Strong Women's Championship, with it being contested in a singles-elimination tournament and with the bracket being revealed on the same day. The tournament featured Mercedes, CMLL's Stephanie Vaquer, AEW's Willow Nightingale and Stardom's Momo Kohgo. On May 21, at Resurgence, Mercedes defeated Vaquer in the first round and later lost Nightingale in the finals after she got injured during the match. After the event, Dave Meltzer of the *Wrestling Observer Newsletter* reported that the original plan was to Mercedes win the match and become the inaugural champion; however, due to Mercedes getting injured during the match, the plans shifted with Nightingale winning the match instead and becoming the inaugural champion.

## Other media

As Sasha Banks, she made her video game debut in *WWE 2K17*, and has since appeared in *WWE 2K18*, *WWE 2K19*, *WWE 2K20*, and *WWE 2K22*. She also appears in the mobile games *WWE SuperCard* and *WWE Mayhem*, as well as the spin-off game WWE 2K Battlegrounds.

Mercedes made her acting debut in the second season of the Disney+ series *The Mandalorian*, where she portrays Koska Reeves, a Mandalorian who serves under Bo-Katan Kryze as a member of the Nite Owls.

"Song For Sasha Banks" – Written and performed by The Mountain Goats, tells the story of her childhood, watching Chris Jericho on *SmackDown*, and then becoming a professional wrestler in her own right. It was released as a single digital track on June 18, 2018.

Banks served as honorary starter for the 2021 Daytona 500. In September 2022, Banks made her modeling debut at New York Fashion Week alongside Trinity (also known as Naomi in WWE).

## Professional wrestling style and persona

Mercedes is noted for her big popularity. She uses the nickname "The CEO" (or "The Boss" during her time in WWE), which she describes herself as being "the standard, the topic, the conversation, the blueprint and the CEO of the women's divison of NJPW and Stardom". She uses a Gory Special spun into a DDT as her finisher, which she calls the *Mone Maker*, previously a double knee backbreaker transitioned into a Crossface known as the *Bank Statement*.

Mercedes is known for her luxurious, glamorous, and egoistical personality. She wears two finger rings on each hand, with the first being read as "Mone" and the other being read as "$$$", a crown based on the crown of New York's Liberty Statue. She favors a cosplay-style wardrobe read as "バンクス" (*Bankusu*, Banks) in the back, as a reference to her WWE ring-name Sasha Banks as well as another punning reference to banks/money. Her hair is currently short and dyed in turquoise blue with flames. She often emphasizes the moniker "Mone" (Money), with she referring that she makes the Japanese Yen valuating and collects "the precious (jewels)", "the rubies", "the gold" and "the dollars", and by often telling her opponents to "Bank on Mone!", a reference to a moniker she used while in WWE, telling her opponents to "Bank on that!".

She cites WWE wrestler Tyler Breeze as one of the inspirations for her character, recalling a conversation she had with Breeze before debuting on television in which he told her "to be in television you must have a character". Her cousin Snoop Dogg and WWE legend and Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero are her main inspirations, with her cousin assisting her in developing her gimmick.

## Impact and legacy

Mercedes is one of the most popular and recognizable wrestlers of her generation. Mercedes was the second Raw Women's Champion and previously held the record for the most reigns at 5 reigns. At WrestleMania 37, Mercedes and Bianca Belair became the first African-American women to have headlined WWE's flagship annual event, with this being the second time that women had headlined WWE's flagship annual event, Wrestlemania leading both women to be given the Best WWE Moment at the EPSY Awards. She was also the third most tweeted about female athlete in 2021.

Mercedes was also the first woman (alongside Bayley) to headline an NXT TakeOver event, the first iron woman match in WWE history, and the longest women's match in WWE history at the time with a length of 30 minutes. Their match was voted by *Pro Wrestling Illustrated* (*PWI*) as Match of the Year, with Mercedes also being voted as Woman of the Year. Upon being called up to main-roster, a year later, she (alonside Charlotte Flair), became the first woman to headline a WWE pay-per-view event, the first women to compete in a Hell in a Cell match, and the first woman to win the *PWI* award for Feud of the Year. Her Raw Women's Championship match against Becky Lynch at Hell in a Cell 2019 was ranked No. 2 in 2019 by WWE on "The Top 25 Matches of 2019" list and was was the third most tweeted about female athlete in 2021. And a year later she was named Wrestler of the Year by *Sports Illustrated* at the end of 2020. Mercedes (alongside Alexa Bliss) became the first woman to ever compete in a religious Muslim country at a live-event in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes' popularity pften led to chants of "We want Sasha!" during matches or segments that involved her. This rise in popularity led her to sometime being often involved in controversial situations, an example being AEW wrestler Sammy Guevara getting suspended after he made an inappropriate joke about wanting to "go rape" her during a podcast in January 2016. Guevara later apologized for his remarks and took accountability for what he said, with them later being in contact with each other, and apologizing to her, engaging in an "open discussion" to help him understand the severity of his comments.

She is regarded by her friends and fellow co-workers as "one of the most talented, dedicated and popular wrestlers of all-time", with them often citing that she was "taking the women's division to a completely different level". Hall of Famer Vickie Guerrero (widow of Eddie Guerrero) has told her "If Eddie was alive, he would be proud of you.".

## Personal life

Through her father, Varnado is a first cousin of rapper Snoop Dogg, who helped develop her in-ring persona. She is also a first cousin of music producer Daz Dillinger and singers Brandy Norwood and Ray J. She is a fan of K-pop music and of Japanese anime and manga, with *Sailor Moon* and BTS being her favorite K-Pop and animation series.

Varnado has cited Eddie Guerrero as her favorite wrestler and inspiration. She was in attendance at Guerrero's memorial episode of *Raw* on November 14, 2005, in Minneapolis, and she also revealed that she was unaware that Guerrero had died before she arrived at the arena.

On August 4, 2016, Kaestner-Varnado married retired professional wrestler Sarath Ton. The two met while they were both wrestling on the independent circuit. Ton, who is widely known by his ring name Mikaze, now works as a costume designer for WWE.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Bankrupt* (Straight jacket neckbreaker slam)
	+ *Bank Statement* (Bridging crossface, often transitioned from a double knee backbreaker, or as a counter to a roll-up)
	+ *Mone Maker* (Gory special spun into a DDT)
* **Signature moves**
	+ Baseball slide
	+ Belly-to-belly suplex – adopted from Bayley
	+ Multiple Boston crab variations
		- Regular
		- *Canadian Maple Leaf* (Roll through single leg)
		- Single leg
	+ Bow and arrow stretch
	+ Camel clutch
	+ Multiple DDT variations
		- Leg-trap sunset flip
		- Single arm, sometimes from the top rope
		- Tilt-a-whirl
		- Tornado
	+ Diving crossbody
	+ Dropkick, sometimes running
	+ Multiple double knee variations
		- Armbreaker, sometimes springboarding
		- *Backstabber* (backbreaker, sometimes transitioned into a straight jacket)
		- Diving *Meteora* to an opponent trapped between the turnbuckles
		- *Meteora* (Diving)
		- Pop up
		- *Rent's Due* (Roll-through facebreaker)
		- Springboard slingshot
		- Swinging facebreaker
		- To a cornered opponent
	+ Elbow smash
	+ Frog splash
	+ Fujiwara armbar
	+ Hair-pull whip
	+ Headbutt
	+ Multiple hurricanrana variations
		- Diving
		- Running
		- Springboard
		- Tiger feint
		- to an opponent sitting on the turnbuckle
	+ Japanese arm drag
	+ Kneeling jawbreaker
	+ Knee strike, to counter a kick
	+ Leg-trap sunset flip guillotine choke
	+ Lou Thesz press, with multiple punches
	+ Modified headscissors driver, into the turnbuckles
	+ Modified scissored armbar
	+ Modified Stump Puller
	+ Monkey flip
	+ Multiple forehand chops
	+ Multiple pinning variations
		- Backslide
		- Crucifix
		- Rolling leg clutch
		- Roll-up, sometimes while bridging
		- Small package
		- Schoolgirl roll up
		- Oklahoma roll
		- Wheelbarrow victory roll
	+ Pendulum backbreaker, followed by a snap sidewalk slam
	+ Powerbomb, from out of the corner
	+ Reverse chinlock, with bodyscissors
	+ *Romero Stretch* (Elevated surfboard stretch)
	+ Roundhouse kick
	+ Straight jacket choke
	+ Straight jacket crossface
	+ Spear
	+ Step-up knee strike
	+ Springboard arm drag
	+ Springboard crossbody, preceded by an O'Connor roll
	+ Springboard headscissors takedown
	+ STO
	+ Suicide dive, followed by an arm drag
	+ Sunset flip powerbomb
	+ Sunset flip wheelbarrow facebuster
	+ Super frankensteiner
	+ Superplex
	+ Surfboard stretch
	+ *Three Amigos* (Triple rolling vertical suplexes)
	+ Tiger feint kick
	+ Tilt-a-whirl headscissors takedown
	+ Topé con hilo
	+ Wheelbarrow bulldog
* **Nicknames**
	+ "The Blueprint"
	+ **"The CEO"**
	+ "The Conversation"
	+ "The Standard"
	+ "The Topic"
* **Entrance themes**
	+ **"Mone"** by Mercedes Mone

## Championships and accomplishments

* **CBS Sports**
	+ Tag Team of the Year (2020) – with Bayley
* **ESPY Awards**
	+ Best WWE Moment (2021) – Banks and Bianca Belair make history as the first Black women to main-event WrestleMania
* **New Japan Pro-Wrestling**
	+ IWGP Women's Championship (1 time)
* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ Match of the Year (2015) vs. Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect
	+ Woman of the Year (2015)
	+ Feud of the Year (2016) vs. Charlotte Flair
	+ Feud of the Year (2020) vs. Bayley
	+ Tag Team of the Year (2020) – with Bayley
	+ Ranked No. 2 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the *PWI Female 50* in 2016
	+ Ranked No. 3 of the top 50 tag teams in the *PWI Tag Team 50* in 2020 – with Bayley
* ***Rolling Stone***
	+ Future Diva of the Year (2015)
	+ Ranked No. 4 of the 10 best WWE wrestlers of 2016
	+ NXT Match of the Year (2015) vs. Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
	+ Title Feud of the Year, NXT (2015) vs. Bayley for the NXT Women's Championship
* **Sirius XM Busted Open Radio**
	+ Wrestler of the Year (2020)
	+ Tag Team of the Year (2020) – with Bayley
* ***Sports Illustrated***
	+ Ranked No. 8 of the top 10 female wrestlers in 2019 – tied with Bayley
	+ Wrestler of the Year (2020)
* ***Wrestling Observer Newsletter***
	+ Worst Feud of the Year (2015) Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella
	+ Worst Feud of the Year (2018) vs. Bayley