At the 2024 edition of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view, Mercedes Mone and Stephanie Vaquer put out a classic singles match that was able to impress professional wrestling fans. It was a mouth-watering match where two stars from AEW and CMLL collided for the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship with the former picking up the win.
In that match, Mercedes Mone also became a dual champion on the AEW roster. This match has also been touted to be the reason why WWE could have been interested in bringing Stephanie Vaquer under their banner in the first place. After all, squaring off such a veteran talent like Mone put the spotlight on the Chilean wrestler.
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In her weekly Mone Mag newsletter, Mone reflected on Stephanie Vaquer’s signing with WWE while also revisiting their experience together at the Forbidden Door event. Mone recalled how her opponent arrived just an hour before the show began which left them to the minimal preparatory works inside the squared circle.
Furthermore, the two superstars had a language barrier with Mercedes Mone fluent in English and Stephanie Vaquer in Spanish. Despite the two wrestlers feeling jet-lagged and hungry, a fantastic match was ultimately put up. Per Mone’s belief, this match played a pivotal role in the above-mentioned signing as WWE got the former CMLL star under their banner just a few days later.
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Stephanie Vaquer wrestled Mercedes Mone with minimum preparations
“Another time was with Stephanie Vaquer for AEW’s Forbidden Door. Stephanie flew in that day and got to the building maybe an hour before the doors opened. We just talked about the match a little where she speaks a whole different language (Spanish),” Mercedes Mone revisited her match from Forbidden Door PPV.
“That was so hard. I’m like, my God, we don’t get time to walk over our moves, we speak two different languages, and we’re both tired, jet lagged, and hungry, too. Yet, that also turned out to be such a great match. She was signed by the WWE days later. I’d like to think our match had a say in that!”
In the mid-portion of the second CW episode of WWE NXT on October 8, the Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade appeared together in the ring and admitted to having rekindled their friendship and how they will just take over the scene as new allies. Giulia interrupted the scene and then brought out Stephanie Vaquer as her new ally.
According to follow-up reports by Fightful Select, NXT officials were very pleased with how Stephanie Vaquer’s debut went by and the overall reception of the Mexican talent. This also set her up for potential big plans around the former CMLL wrestler.
