Mercedes Mone is back with another edition of her “Mone Mag” newsletter.
In this week’s newsletter, the reigning AEW TBS Champion gave credit to Tamina Snuka for teaching her to pay it forward.
You can check out some highlights below:
On traditions expected of rookies in wrestling: “The thing about being a wrestle newbie is that you more or less need to be doing everything to support the vets and the show. You try to offer to pay for gas and even hotels, and you do things like drive the veterans the entire way. It’s more or less a rite of passage — or at least it was. These [wrestling] traditions are unwritten and have been passed down from veterans through the decades.”
On what she learned from Tamina Snuka: “She taught me to always pay it forward — and to pay it forward with kindness. I’m not sure how many wrestling veterans passed those sentiments down, but Tamina sure did. She was so unique that she, ‘the veteran’ actually paid for me, ‘the newbie.’ I remember her covering my hotel because even though I was an NXT Superstar. I didn’t have the money! I’ll always be grateful for that and the lessons.”
During a recent appearance on “The Wrestling Classic” podcast, AEW wrestler Harley Cameron discussed working with Saraya in AEW and what she’s learned.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On being paired with Saraya: “QTV obviously came to a close. I still, at this point, hadn’t wrestled, and I’ve been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to show my personality and my work ethic to a degree, but I just thought to myself, ‘Well, what can I do to keep the ball spinning?’ I decided to film some vignettes at home in my own time, and just pitch some things and some ideas of a character transition. I really like Saraya and Ruby. First off, they’ve been people that I looked up to and like, wanted me to get into wrestling. So I just remember the conversation happening.”
“A few people kind of had ideas thrown here and there, but we kind of all just discussed one day maybe I could join them, and they had some storyline ideas that needed someone kind of bought into that. I don’t think that I expected it to stick like this because I think the initial plan was to add me in, but I don’t know if I was going to be solidly in the group. Then, we just had fantastic chemistry together, and everyone seemed to like it, and it just stuck.”
On how much she’s learning from Saraya: “It’s just very, very cool now because. I just love Saraya so much, and she’s so wonderful. I’m learning so much working with her, you know? She’s just one of the greats. I pinch myself that I’m literally by her side because I just used to watch her and be inspired. I’m like, ‘Holy sh*t, I’m next to you.’ It’s very cool.”