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“He Needs Me”: Tony Khan Almost Signed Former WWE Divas Champion After Acquiring Mercedes Mone

Published 04/15/2024, 4:54 PM EDT

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Tony Khan won the bidding wars against WWE when he signed Mercedes Mone to his promotion this year. Mone followed the trend like several other ex-WWE stars who ended up joining AEW. She wasn’t going to be the last former WWE talent to sign with Tony Khan, but Nikki Bella also almost ended up joining the wrestling promotion.

Although Nikki hadn’t set foot in the ring for a long time, when she saw one of Mone’s promos following her AEW debut, she was motivated to join forces with WWE’s rival company.

Tony Khan almost signed Nikki Bella

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The Bella Twins were talking about the long-term problems that wrestling causes to the athletes. Despite these problems, wrestlers often return to the sport to continue pursuing their passion. Nikki revealed on The Nikki & Brie Show that she had a similar desire and almost signed with Tony Khan.

The former Diva champion said, “How serious I got where I was like, ‘Okay I think I can do maybe a year at AEW, and I can do it every week, ‘because when I saw Mercedes debut and I caught her promo, that line stuck with me, ‘Here we’re going to make our evolution worldwide,’ and I was like ‘You do’.” Despite the strong desire to rejoin wrestling, Nikki changed her decision for her son, Matteo.

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Nikki confessed, “I had a good week of like this is it. I’m gonna call Tony Khan, imma be ‘I’m your girl. I will commit.’ And then I was like, I can’t do that to my son right now. He needs me.

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She withheld her wish to rejoin the wrestling industry for her son. She didn’t want to lose the time that she gets to spend as a mother. However, if she had joined AEW, big bucks might have been waiting for her.

The money offer attracted Sasha Banks

While Sasha Banks’ destination in the pro wrestling industry was undecided, rumors suggested that WWE is not offering as much money to her as AEW. Following her debut in the rival promotion, she was featured in an interview with ESPN, which pointed toward what influenced Mone’s decision to ditch WWE.

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Through her words, Banks indicated that money was one of the more influential factors when it came to her negotiation with the two parties. This meant that Tony Khan was able to meet better with her bargain. So, it is possible that if Nikki Bella had gone through with her decision, she could have been offered a good paycheck too, while doing what she loves.

Would you like to see Nikki Bella come back to the pro wrestling industry? Comment your thoughts below.

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Written by:

Kaif Ali

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Kaif Ali is a pro wrestling writer at EssentiallySports and a massive WWE enthusiast. Currently pursuing an English degree, Kaif has started his career off strong, having written 1000+ articles at ES. As a huge Dwayne Johnson and John Cena stan, he loves covering their antics both on and off the small screen.
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Edited by:

Gokul Pillai