Mercedes Martinez on her last year in AEW: “Not being utilized to my full potential kind of brought me into that weird headspace”

I’m blessed for the opportunity that Tony [Khan] gave me for the last four years, but it felt like the last year, year and a half—almost two years—I kind of just sat on the shelf, not doing anything for the company. And it kind of messes with your mind a lot. It kind of just makes you wonder, am I worth it? Does he really, you know, want to utilize my talent and my expertise?

I know my style is not like a TV style. It’s very raw, it’s very rugged, it’s very old school—in the sense of being very power and strong style. And, you know, maybe the girls don’t want to wrestle somebody like me with that style because it’s… but I mean, I also look at Eddie Kingston and be like, well, if he can do it, I know I can do it. Like, you need a female like that.

So yeah, it’s kind of one of those things where I’m just like, man, I’m hitting that age group. I’m 45, and can I still go with the new generation? And maybe that’s their thing. Maybe they didn’t want to put me in that sense, in creative storylines or anything like that. So it’s just one of those things where I’m like, maybe if we don’t renew the contract—which I already knew wasn’t going to happen—I’m going to go out the way I want to go out.

I want to make sure that I can spend this last year wrestling anybody and everybody—the new generation, old generation, the vets, the works—and show that, yeah, it doesn’t matter if I was on TV or not. I can still go and still have a lot more to prove, but I’m going to do it with just one last year, without any chains around my wrists— the way I chose to do it, the same way that I came in.

Balls to the wall, baby.”