Blake Monroe explains her thought process when leaving AEW.
At the end of May, Blake Monroe (then known as Mariah May) left AEW after just 18 months with the company, and it wasn’t long before she made her next move. Just days after being her departure, the 27-year-old made her debut on the June 3 edition of NXT. Now, Monroe has opened up on why she left All Elite Wrestling and how she weighed up her future.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Blake Monroe discussed feeling as if she’d done everything she could in AEW, and even considering a return to Japan before going to WWE.
“I had a fantastic experience and I did things that I’m so proud of and cherish. I had a really short contract and when it came to an end, there were positives and negatives. It got to the point in wrestling where, I did have an amazing story, but that was the one thing. I didn’t have much else. I just thought, ‘Is this everything I want?’ I also considered going to Japan, which nobody knows. It’s something I talked to them about. When my deal was up, people were like, ‘Just talk to WWE and see.’ I wasn’t considering it. That’s not an insult to WWE. I always just try to focus on one thing at a time and I just hadn’t considered it. When I talked to them and they cared so much about The Glamour and all these different things. I was like, ‘Okay, now I do have a big choice to make.’ I sat and thought about it. It was a really tough decision. It just came down to, I did everything I needed to do. I feel like I told a great story, and I made people feel something, and it’s time to close that chapter and start a new one. Getting a new name and a whole new experience. There are so many women here. Women’s wrestling is very important in WWE. As a woman, that’s something I want to be a part of. All these different matches and possibilities, to me, it was a great deal. It was a challenge, and I want a challenge,”
-Blake Monroe
Prior to her AEW run, Monroe spent around eight months in World Wonder Ring STARDOM. Here, she won the Goddess Of Stardom Championships alongside Mina Shirakawa as part of ‘Rose Gold’.
Elsewhere in the interview, Monroe discussed moving away from the ‘Mariah May’ name. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Blake Monroe as soon as we hear more.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
