Mercedes Moné ends her first night in AEW by taking out the TBS champ

During her “Big Business”-opening promo, new AEW star Mercedes Moné told us she’d be keeping an eye on the main event of the Mar. 13 Dynamite. That was because it featured Willow Nightingale, the wrestler who became the first New Japan Strong Women’s champion thanks to an injury Moné suffered in their match last May,

Nightingale was looking to defeat the inaugural AEW Women’s champion Riho, and to do so without the help of her friend Kris Statlander and their frenemy Stokely Hathaway in order to position herself for a shot at Julia Hart’s TBS title.

It seemed like Willow’s power would be too much for Riho’s speed…

… but the Japanese wrestler fought her way back into this one, and seemed to have picked up a win with a Dragon Suplex on the apron followed by a stomp off the top rope.

After surviving that comeback, it wasn’t too long before Nightingale put Riho down for three with the Doctor Bomb. And that set the stage for the lights to go out in TD Garden. The fans in Boston chanted “C.E.O”, expecting a staredown between Willow & Mercedes. Instead they got Hart and her sidekick Skye Blue, who managed to put Nightingale down with a chop block, but before they could do more damage Moné’s music finally did hit.

She then hit Blue with a forearm that took her out on the ramp, then got in the ring with the TBS champ. That clash was also one-sided, ending with a Moné Maker to Hart.

Willow then raised Moné’s hand and cleared the ring, leaving her to celebrate with her friends & family at ringside. Next Wednesday, Mercedes will speak to us once again. Perhaps we’ll get a better indication of her next move as a member of the AEW roster then.

Get complete results and coverage of everything on the “Big Business” edition of Dynamite here.