Mercedes Mone, formerly known as Sasha Banks, defeated KAIRI to become the new IWGP Women's Champion at last week's New Japan Pro-Wrestling Battle in the Valley event, which indicates that she'll be staying with the promotion for the foreseeable future.
However, bestie and former tag-team partner Bayley believes it's only a matter of time before Mone returns "home" to WWE.
“I’ll say yes. Because I mean, this is her home," said the leader of Damage CTRL when asked if she thought Mercedes will ever wrestle in a WWE ring again during an interview with Areil Helwani. "This is her dream, and I love to see what she’s doing and what she’s going to be doing over the next few months. She’s going to literally take over the world, take the world by storm, but I know this is her home and where her heart is. By her heart, I mean me, so she needs to come back to me, you know? I need her, I need my travel partner, but I’m gonna say yes like I’ll never give up hope that she’ll come back.”
Mone didn't leave WWE on particularly good terms, walking out along with Naomi while they still held the Women's Tag-Team Championships. When asked about her friend's current relationship with Triple H, Bayley declined to go into it.
“Honestly, I don’t know. She’s a little private about that stuff. We talk about a lot, but she’s very private when it comes to that situation.”
Trips reportedly texted Mone to congratulate her on her title win, so it doesn't sound like there's any bad blood there.
We'd say there's a good chance of Mercedes making her back to WWE down the line, but probably not for quite a while!