Trust me, this week’s match against Emi Sakura won’t be the first time I’ve had to get in the ring with NO prep at all! Unfortunately, with all our crazy travel, it actually happens all the time. I mean, sometimes you don’t even meet the opponent until you get the ring. Often, you’re last minute to the arena. You barely have time to call the match. You’ve got to put on your gear. You’ve got a pre-tape. You’ve got to cut a promo. You have to take pictures. So, you just have to rely on your skill set on the fly. It can be really crazy- but it can lead to a really great match too…
Great Match, NO PREP: Bayley & Brooklyn
All the above takes me to a few of this week’s Moné Memories. One Great match I had with ZERO prep between my opponent and me was the one at NXT Takeover in Brooklyn with Bayley. At the time, I was on the road full-time with so little time. In addition, I had to do a panel with Triple H two hours before the doors even opened. I was also coming straight from Smackdown or Raw, so I didn’t even get to work out in the ring with Bayley. We only had maybe five minutes to talk about our match in the ring. I wanted to tell her about this crazy spot. In truth, I didn’t even want to practice with her or show her the spot because I was afraid that they were going to tell me no, or that the boys were going to see it and that they were going to take it away. Yes, that happens. So, I just kind of told her what I wanted to do. As I said, we didn’t get to rehearse it or any other move. However, that match turned out to be the greatest women’s match ever.
Great Match, NO PREP 2: Stephanie Vaquer at Forbidden Door
Another time was with Stephanie Vaquer for AEW’s Forbidden Door. Stephanie flew in that day and got to the building maybe an hour before the doors opened. We just talked about the match a little where she speaks a whole different language (Spanish). That was so hard. I’m like, my God, we don’t get time to walk over our moves, we speak two different languages, and we’re both tired, jet lagged, and hungry, too. Yet, that also turned out to be such a great match. She was signed by the WWE days later. I’d like to think our match had a say in that!
