On Wednesday night’s New Year’s Smash edition of Dynamite, former WWE wrestler Mercedes Martinez would make her return to AEW. She’d interfere during the TBS title tournament semifinal disguised in a black hoodie with her face covered and striking Thunder Rosa, which would lead to Jade Cargill securing the victory. Martinez would go on to enter the ring and reveal herself and, along with Cargill, beat on Rosa until Ruby Soho made the save. Subsequently, Tony Khan would announce that she had signed with the company via Twitter.
This was Martinez’s return to AEW as she was an entrant in the women’s Casino Battle Royale at All Out in 2019 and had previously wrested on Dark. However, after not being signed would join WWE, and after an initial run in NXT, would be called up to the main roster as part of the Retribution. Although seeing the faction was doomed to fail and being unhappy at having her name changed, she would ask to be removed from the group shortly after they debuted.
She would have a brief return on NXT before being released by the company controversially while recovering from a concussion. Since then, she has worked for Impact Wrestling, winning their Knockouts Knockdown Tournament, and then challenged Mickie James for the Knockouts Championship on their Turning Point pay-per-view.
