AEW: Mercedes Mone Teases Upcoming AEW Return Soon, Zayda Steel on When Tony Khan Contacted Her for AEW/ROH Deal After Her WWE Departure, New FTR Trademark

Mercedes Mone Teases Upcoming AEW Return Soon

As noted before, Mercedes Mone has been absent from AEW since the January 10th episode of AEW Collision due to her taking a break following her TBS Championship loss to Willow Nightingale. During her time away from AEW, Mone has competed in several indies matches and had lost several of her Women’s Championships to others from her collection of belts she currently holds.

Italian television station IL61 held a recent interview with Mone. One of the topics discussed included Mone givign a message to her fans and teasing that she will be returning to AEW after her upcoming WPW Women’s Championship defense against Jody Threat at Winnipeg Pro Wrestling’s Fight at the Museum on March 31st in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

“I’m returning (to AEW) really, really soon. But right now, I am on my Mone Madness Tour all over Europe. First, it started in Mexico, now here in Italy, next stop is Paris, then London, then Poland, then Winnipeg. After that, Mama is gonna return home.”

AEW currently is scheduled to hold an AEW Dynamite show in Winnipeg on April 1st.

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Zayda Steel Comments on When Tony Khan Contacted Her for AEW/ROH Deal After Her WWE Departure

As noted before, former WWE ID and WWE EVOLVE talent Zayda Steel has been signed with AEW and Ring of Honor since this past January.

A recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast featured Steel as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Steel’s thoughts about her decision to leave WWE in October of 2025 and her original plans for the future of her wrestling career at the time.

“So, I don’t know how much I can say, but, I will say this: I chose to walk away from my previous employment by choice. I’m on my own journey. I love wrestling. I just want to be around people that love it just as much as I do. So I chose to walk away. My plans at first were to go to Japan. I was gonna take the last two, three months of the year as a little mental break, financial break, and I was gonna go overseas and do it the right way this time and five days after I tweeted that tweet, Tony Khan texted me so, plans changed. I love wrestling, like I said, and this is my escape from reality and once I started to feel like my only escape was work and I started to not like it and not have fun — I want to always love this, so I chose to walk away — as well as my mental. Personally, I was losing myself. I was losing the love for wrestling, the only thing I’ve loved. So it was pretty quickly on that. I was like, ‘Yeah, I need to do my own thing.’”

Steel also gave her thoughts about her conversation with AEW CEO Tony Khan that led to her signing with AEW and Ring of Honor.

“Oh! This guy watches everything. He knew exactly who I was, what I’ve done. I was like, ‘What!?’ Some of my best friends don’t know what I’ve done so, his love for wrestling, instantly, I was like, oh yeah, this guy, he’s as crazy as I am so, and the phone call lasted exactly six minutes… That’s a little trippy — on the dot. But it was like, that phone call was what I needed.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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FTR Files New Trademark

FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) filed a new trademark for their “FTR” tag team logo on March 19th for wresting and merchandise-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Portion of trademark filing:

Providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer; Entertainment in the nature of wrestling contests; Entertainment services, namely, televised appearances by a professional wrestler and sports entertainer; Entertainment services, namely, personal appearances by a professional wrestler and sports entertainer; Entertainment services, namely, live appearances by a professional wrestler and sports entertainer; Providing online interviews featuring professional wrestler and sports entertainer in the field of professional wrestling and sports entertainment for entertainment purposes

Shirts; Sweatshirts; Hooded sweatshirts; Hats; Bandanas; Socks