Claim made that Mercedes Mone is “probably the best overall worker of American women wrestlers ever”
As seen during the 2026 AEW All In PPV event, Mercedes Mone defeated Willow Nightingale to become the AEW women’s world champion. The match was awarded a five-star rating from longtime wrestling analyst Dave Meltzer.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer discused Mercedes being considered as a potential Wrestling Observer Hall of Famer…
“She would be the first woman ever to hold the WWE—I don’t think she said WWE, but it’s the first person ever to hold the WWE, the CMLL, New Japan, IWGP, and Strong, and now AEW championships. And so that, and also this week she became the first person, the first woman. There are a lot of guys who’ve done this, but she’s the first woman who will ever have competed in the Tokyo Dome, which very few women wrestlers have been in the Tokyo Dome. So that’s a pretty hard—that’s the hardest one for the women wrestlers.
So, competed at the Tokyo Dome, competed in Madison Square Garden, which a lot of women wrestlers have, competed at Wembley, and competed at Arena Mexico. So that’s two big major resume points for her going into, you know, Hall of Fame consideration.
It’s, you know, no American woman has been voted in. I think since we’ve had voting. I mean, Japanese women have been voted in, but no American women. And Becky Lynch hasn’t really come close, and I would think Mercedes probably won’t.
But those two probably deserve consideration for very different reasons. You know, Becky Lynch was the first woman, probably in American history, to be the biggest star, even though it was a short period of time, in the entire business. And Mercedes, you know, the stuff that I said, and probably, you know, Mercedes is probably the best overall worker of American women wrestlers ever. I mean, there’s—I couldn’t come up with anybody else as the best.”