Mercedes Martinez wants to help elevate everyone.
Mercedes Martinez recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor ahead of her title opportunity against Knockouts Champion Mickie James at IMPACT Wrestling’s Turning Point special. Mercedes spoke about what the title opportunity means to her, as well as shared her thoughts on the story Mickie and Deonna Purrazzo told this summer.
“I watched the Deonna and Mickie match, and it was great storytelling. It was one of my favorite matches of Mickie’s right now. And especially Deonna, who’s been on a tear the last year, just proving everyone wrong and just literally elevating her game, and the match with Mickie just really proved her worth. It really just cemented her as one of the best in this business,” Martinez said, “and sometimes you need a match like that. The younger generation and the younger talent, no matter how long you’ve been in this business, you will always elevate your game anytime you get in the ring with someone who has the experience that you could still go because you want to be able to be adaptable.
“You want to be able to show the audience and the fans two different styles from different generations of this sport. You’ve got Mickie, who has been around maybe twenty years or so. And then you got Deonna, who’s probably been around maybe not even ten. You bring those two together, and you’re going to have an amazing match because it’s different mentalities, different styles, different ways of putting matches together. You’re just going to mesh all those ideas together, and you’re going to come up with something amazing because you have someone leading,” Martinez explained, “you have someone who knows what to do in high situations on TV and when the stakes are high and the pressures on, and then you have someone who’s willing to learn and be a sponge.”
“I think that match itself proved to everybody that there’s no problem with putting the new generation with someone that is better, and it’s not condescending at all, whatsoever. It really isn’t. I’ve always proved myself over and over again that we can level up the bar. We can always raise that bar up to another level. Every time, we can raise another younger talent up. It’s just what we do. It’s just the experience that we have. And if you can go, you can go, and I just think that younger generations can learn from the experience in those high-stakes situations from someone who’s been in this business and done it over and over again and can help you,” she noted. “That’s really what it is. We just want to elevate everybody.”
Mercedes Martinez challenges Mickie James for the IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Championship at Turning Point on Saturday, November 20. Martinez is also set to appear at a meet-and-greet session at IMPACT’s Sunday evening television tapings in Las Vegas. Watch our full interview at the top of this post and learn more about this weekend’s IMPACT Wrestling tapings in Las Vegas at this link.
