Mercedes Mone

As of January 2024, she is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where she performs under the ring name Mercedes Moné and is the current AEW TBS Champion in her first reign. She also appears in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and its sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom. She is a former and the longest-reigning Strong Women’s Champion, as well as in Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro), where she is the current Undisputed British Women’s Champion in her first reign.

Varnado became widely known for her time in WWE from 2012 to 2022, where she performed under the ring name Sasha Banks. She is the first and only female professional wrestler to win championships across WWE, AEW, and NJPW.

Varnado began her wrestling career in 2010 on the independent circuit, most notably for Chaotic Wrestling, where she won the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship. She signed with WWE in 2012 under the ring name Sasha Banks and was assigned to the developmental territory NXT. She would later win the NXT Women’s Championship.

Her match against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect in October 2015 was the first women’s match to ever headline an NXT TakeOver, the first iron woman match in WWE history, and the longest women’s match in WWE history at the time, lasting 30 minutes. Their match was named “Match of the Year” by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI), with Varnado also being named “Woman of the Year”.

In 2015, Varnado was promoted to WWE’s main roster, where she went on to hold the WWE Raw Women’s Championship five times. In 2016, she and Charlotte Flair became the first women to headline a WWE pay-per-view event, the first to compete in a Hell in a Cell match, and the first to win the PWI award for Feud of the Year.

In 2019, she won the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with tag team partner, Bayley, at Elimination Chamber. In 2020, she won the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship at Hell in a Cell, becoming a WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion and WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion. That year, she was named “Wrestler of the Year” by Sports Illustrated.

At WrestleMania 37, Varnado and opponent Bianca Belair became the first two black women to headline WrestleMania. After creative issues in 2022, Varnado walked out of WWE and ultimately left the company. She made her debut for NJPW/Stardom at Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January 2023 under the ring name Mercedes Moné and became a one-time IWGP Women’s Champion.

After her NJPW/Stardom contract ended in December that year, she signed with AEW the following month and made her debut at Dynamite: Big Business in March 2024, subsequently winning the AEW TBS Championship in her AEW in-ring debut at Double or Nothing two months later.

Varnado is widely considered to be one of the greatest female professional wrestlers of all time. Outside of wrestling, she portrays the recurring character Koska Reeves in the second and third seasons of the Disney+ space western series The Mandalorian.

Notable Matches: vs Charlotte vs Becky Lynch vs Bayley at NXT TakeOver Rival 2015, vs. Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect 2015, 1st Women’s Tag Team Elimination Chamber

Notable Feuds: vs. Bayley, vs. Charlotte

Other Notable Achievements: Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship, RWC No Limitz Championship, IWE Women’s Championship