"I cringe" - WWE veteran is not a fan of Mercedes Mone, says her interviews are "terrible"
A WWE veteran has shared his honest thoughts on Mercedes Mone's interviews and promos in All Elite Wrestling. The name in question is none other than Dutch Mantell.
Mercedes Mone arrived at Big Business Dynamite in March and has been presented as a huge star in AEW. She won the TBS Championship in her first match for the promotion and quickly managed to become a double champion after winning the NJPW Strong Women's Championship at Forbidden Door. However, Mone has been criticized for her promo work ever since joining the company.
In the recent edition of Storytime with Dutch Mantell podcast, the former WWE manager slammed The CEO's promo skills and said that he 'cringes' every time she speaks on the microphone. Mantell claimed that Saraya and Toni Storm are far better than the current TBS Champion.
"Hey when [Mercedes] Mone does an interview, I cringe. I'm going, 'God, terrible'. It just looks like memorized and she just recites the lines and there's nothing between either one of 'em [Mercedes Mone & Britt Baker]. I much prefer Toni Storm and all the rest of those guys and Saraya because they at least put some life into it, Mone does nothing." [From 01:32:27 to 01:33:02]
Check out the video below:
Willow Nightingale shares her thoughts on AEW star Mercedes Mone
Mercedes Mone has gotten a lot of hate for her character work ever since she became a major player outside of the WWE. Mone left the Stamford-based promotion in 2022 and wrestled in NJPW, Stardom, and now All Elite Wrestling.
In a recent chat with Sportskeeda's Senior Editor Bill Apter, CMLL Women's World Champion Willow Nightingale had nothing but praise for The CEO. She claims that Mone has shaped the landscape for women's wrestling and called her match against Bayley at NXT Takeover Brooklyn one of the best matches of all time.
"I believe so [Moné is living up to the hype]," Nightingale said. "I think she is great. She is somebody who, whether I like it or not because she is, at the end of the day, competition, she has kinda helped shape the current landscape of women's wrestling. I think she had a match that blew a lot of people's minds. It is probably one of, if not my favorite match of all time versus Bayley at TakeOver: Brooklyn. I watched that match and I think I was just starting out wrestling. My mother's not a wrestling fan. I made her watch it. I said, 'You have to see this!' She was like, 'You know what, it's good. If it's good, it's good.'"
It will be interesting to see if Mercedes Mone is pushed for the AEW Women's World Championship after she drops the TBS Title.
While using any quotes from the first half of this article, please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.