With her RETRIBUTION days thankfully over, Mercedes Martinez returned to action on last night’s episode of NXT.
As Io Shirai took to the ring and called out Toni Storm, the current NXT Women’s Champion was blindsided by the returning Mercedes – who then proceeded to decimate Shirai at ringside.
The last time that Martinez was seen on NXT television was back in September, with her losing a Steel Cage bout to Rhea Ripley at NXT’s Super Tuesday II show. Following that, she was featured on Raw as Retaliation as part of the god-awful RETRIBUTION faction.
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Fortunately for Mercedes Martinez, she was quietly removed from RETRIBUTION just a few weeks after the group debuted on WWE TV. If reports are to believed, Martinez actually requested to be taken out of RETRIBUTION – which was clearly a sensible call.
Now, it appears that Mercedes will be the next challenger for Io Shirai’s NXT Women’s Championship.
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With Mercedes Martinez now back in NXT, this adds yet another name to the stacked women’s division assembled by the black-and-gold brand – a division that boasts the likes of Io Shirai, Rhea Ripley, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai, Ember Moon, Toni Storm, Candice LeRae, Shotzi Blackheart, Xia Li, Indi Hartwell and the currently-injured Tegan Nox.
Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics.
As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.
