AEW: Mercedes Mone Comments on Her Wanting to See Athena on AEW TV More Often, Tay Melo Says She Has Been Asked to Prepare for Upcoming Event & Hopes Its for AEW Double or Nothing 2025, More News

Mercedes Mone Comments on Her Wanting to See Athena on AEW TV More Often & Athena is Too Good to Not Be Seen

The Undisputed held a recent interview with Mercedes Mone. One of the topics discussed included Mone’s thoughts about her match against Athena in this year’s Women’s Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament and her wanting to see Athena more often on AEW television.

“That match, it was so f*cking cool. Athena gave me hell. I’ve never experienced anyone like her in the ring.

Athena has been doing it for so long. I was watching her before I was even signed to WWE. I want to see her on AEW television more. She’s too good not to be seen. She’s explosive — one of the best, innovative wrestlers in the world. She is that f*cking good.”

Mone also gave her thoughts about her upcoming match against Jamie Hayter in the Finals of this year’s Women’s Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament at AEW’s Double or Nothing 2025 event.

“I’ve never wrestled Jamie. I’m so excited. First Athena, now Jamie — the Owen Cup is going to be one of the best tournaments in the world.

And I’ve never got to wrestle Toni Storm before, except for a little three-way. Wrestling Toni Storm, that’s a match I’ve been waiting to wrestle for a very, very long time.”

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Tay Melo Says She Has Been Asked to Prepare for Upcoming Wrestling Event & Hopes Its for AEW Double or Nothing 2025

As noted before, Tay Melo has been out of action for AEW since March of 2023 due to maternity leave reasons over the birth of her first child and made her in-ring return for Stardom’s New Year Dream 2025 event this past January in Tokyo, Japan.

GLOBO held a recent interview with Melo. One of the topics discussed included Melo’s thoughts about how she was recently told to prepare for an upcoming event and currently hopes it will be for AEW’s Double or Nothing 2025 event on May 25th.

“That day will be Double or Nothing. It was the event where I announced Luna, and it will have been two years since that moment. Since it’s a new company, I’m the first wrestler to have a baby. It would be a very special date. I’m looking forward to it.”

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AEW News & Notes

As noted before, AEW cancelled their AEW Dark and Dark Elevation series on YouTube in May of 2023 due to a new exclusivity deal they had signed with Warner Bros Discovery at the time. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A that his sources stated that there have been some people within AEW who have wanted AEW Dark to return in some form for some time. Sapp reported that those spoken to stated that when AEW made their television deal for Collision, WBD wanted exclusivity over AEW content but they were okay with Ring of Honor continuing to be run separately. Sapp reported that when AEW signed their new media rights deal with WBD, one of the terms allowed them to move away from WBD exclusivity as a trade-off for losing Rampage. Sapp also reported that any AEW content shown on WBD platforms needs to bring in a rights fee and if not, AEW would likely just put the content on YouTube or HonorClub instead.

As noted before, Darby Allin successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest on Sunday. Allin has been on a break from AEW since this past December due to his planned climb of the mountain that had started this past mid-April. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that AEW officials had not expected Allin to return to the company by their Double or Nothing 2025 event when he began the process for his mountain climb.

The Workhorsemen’s Anthony Henry and JD Drake have been out of action for AEW and Ring of Honor since this past November for Drake due to a foot and ankle injury and this past October for Henry due to a torn biceps injury and surgery. Henry provided an update on Wednesday on Twitter stating that both him and Drake have recently been medically cleared for in-ring returns. Henry stated “It’s been a long year, but the workhorsemen are both 100% officially cleared to return to the ring. Let us rejoice! #workhorsemen“

In a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Julia Hart gave her thoughts about her winning the TBS Championship in 2023 and how she had felt that she jumped five years of her life in late 2023. Hart stated “Yeah, I mean, that happened like two weeks after the wedding, and I also had a birthday in that time span. So it was like that last end of 2023 was like, felt like I jumped like five years of my life. It was just so much is happening. It was so… crazy, and I was so blessed, and I was trying to be in the moment as much as possible, and just, because I’m like, this is like, all of this is like once in a lifetime happening right now. Like, I need to enjoy every bit of this, and I definitely did. I’m just trying to stay grounded, and yeah, it was great.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Women We Love podcast, Willow Nightingale gave her thoughts about her winning the TBS Championship in front of her family at AEW’s Dynasty 2024 event is her proudest moment of her wrestling career so far. Nightingale stated “I am a big family person. So, for me, my biggest accomplishment was last year. I was able to win the TBS title and my parents and my younger sister were front row so they got to see it and be there for a very special moment for me. Championships are so important to what we do, they help us keep track of like our growth, where we’re at at that moment in time and champs get the bigger payday. So you want to be the champ, but to have my family there to spend it with me makes it even better. Yeah, I think that’s probably the most special in my heart.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Toronto Sun, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about the growth of AEW and how being on MAX changed things for both the company and their fans. Khan stated “What’s really changed for us this year; It’s been a true game-changer and sport-changer for AEW; it’s changed the whole marketplace for us in terms of AEW’s wrestling landscape. It’s Max, the streaming service. Having AEW on Max has helped us reach new viewers, a new audience, a younger audience, all kinds of people who have never seen AEW before, maybe even some cord-cutters that have gotten away from cable, coming back into AEW. We’re still seeing record viewership on TSN, TBS, and TNT. The audience all went up from Q4 to Q1, even though we started streaming, more people are watching on cable, which is the complete opposite of what every analyst would’ve expected. We’ve grown our cable numbers as we expanded into the streaming universe, and that move to streaming has injected a lifeblood into AEW that’s been a really positive thing for the wrestlers, the staff, and the fans in 2025. The most important thing we’re doing is great shows every week. Every Wednesday and Saturday, the shows have really delivered, and our fans have been behind the company. Our fans love wrestling, they’re vocal, and we listen. I love hearing when they enjoy it and I want to lean into things they like. It can’t be the same show every week. It has to be different things, but trying to produce shows that our fans like is something we want to do and we have been doing a great job of in 2025.“