Few wrestlers currently working have a résumé that spans a small-town AAA debut, a stint under a mask nobody recognized, and a championship win over one of the biggest crossover stars in the sport, all inside a decade.
Persephone has done all three. Born Priscilla Miranda in El Paso, Texas, on August 3, 2001, she’s become one of the most talked-about names in women’s lucha libre.
As a binational wrestler who’s built a genuine following on both sides of the border and, as of 2026, holds championship gold in the promotion she came up in while also being one of AEW’s newest signings.
Learning the Ropes Along the Border
Persephone made her in-ring debut in August 2016, training under a trio of respected names in the AAA-adjacent independent scene: Rey Escorpión, Scorpio 2000, and Tritón.
Before wrestling, she’d competed as an Olympic-style amateur wrestler, a background that would later show up directly in how she talked about her in-ring approach.
She spent her early years working almost exclusively under a mask as Black Widow, staying close to the Mexican independent and AAA-affiliated scene while building a reputation as a technically sound, hard-hitting competitor.
Her first notable championship success came on June 20, 2021, when Black Widow teamed with Sexy Star to beat Lady Flammer and Reina Dorada for the vacant KAOZ Women’s Tag Team Championship.
She kept working steadily through 2022, expanding into appearances north of the border, including a win alongside Mini Abismo Negro against Lady Shani and Microman at MLW Fury Road 2022 — an early sign that promotions outside Mexico were starting to take notice.
Losing the Mask, Becoming Persephone
In 2023, Black Widow made the significant decision to unmask voluntarily, a move that, in lucha libre tradition, typically marks a turning point in a wrestler’s identity and career rather than a punishment for a lost match.
She debuted under the new name and look, Persephone, and that September formally signed with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, the sport’s oldest and most prestigious Mexican promotion.
It didn’t take long for the new persona to start collecting hardware. In 2024, Persephone won the CMLL Universal Amazons Championship, defeating a sizable field that included Hera, Kira, Tessa Blanchard, and Valkyria before beating Zeusis in the tournament final. That same year, she added the Copa Mujeres Revolucionarias to her résumé.
Building Momentum Through 2025
Persephone’s 2025 turned into a breakout stretch. She achieved this by competing on the Wrestle Dynasty pre-show in January 2025.
She then competed internationally and, in doing so, built a name for herself. This would also come together domestically when she would compete for Major League Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling.
For MLW, she beat Alejandra Quintanilla at Fury Road. Next in AEW, she would team with Thunder Rosa at Global Wars Mexico to beat Red Velvet and Athena. She also worked Global Wars UK, picking up a disqualification win over Alexxis Falcon.
The biggest achievement of the year came that October, when Persephone won the 2025 Women’s International Grand Prix.
It was a physically gruelling battle-royal-style tournament that went nearly 57 minutes before she eliminated Thekla with a moonsault to claim the title.
“…with Thekla here in Mexico in my house, I have a win over her, so it’s like maybe in her own house, I can do the same thing again,…
So I think there are little things you know about meetings with people that maybe when I wasn’t contracted we had run-ins, so now as a contracted star, there are little thorns that I have to get rid of.”
Persephone Has Unfinished Business With Mercedes Moné In CMLL & AEW Women’s Roster.
She was also part of the winning Team Mexico at that year’s broader CMLL International Women’s Grand Prix event.
Around this same period, she crossed into Ring of Honor programming, teaming with Thunder Rosa in a win over Rayla Gray and Doe Thormenta, and, following an injury to Red Velvet, stepped into a four-way match at Supercard of Honor 2025 against Yuka Sakazaki, Miyu Yamashita, and Mina Shirakawa, ultimately losing to Shirakawa.
The Mercedes Moné Rivalry
Persephone’s highest-profile feud has been against Mercedes Moné, the former AEW TBS Champion and one of the sport’s biggest global crossover stars.
Their first encounter turned genuinely personal almost immediately — Moné threw water directly at Persephone’s family in the crowd, a moment that drew a visceral reaction from the audience and, by Persephone’s own account, rattled her.
Looking back on it, she was candid about how much that first meeting had affected her composure: she admitted the water incident had clouded her emotions and judgment at the time.
She said her focus heading into their next fight was to lean on her background as an Olympic-style wrestler and simply out-wrestle Moné, rather than letting emotion take over again.
“I think this time around I’m thinking of myself and only of myself…I think in October (2025), I let maybe emotions, excitement, just the crowd in general, just a lot of things get to me and cloud my own judgment.
Obviously, the moment she threw water on my family kind of clouded my emotions and my judgment.
So I think I’ve always been a wrestler, I was an Olympic wrestler before a professional wrestler and I think this time around it’s not letting any of those emotions get the better of me. Just going in and doing what I’ve always done best and just out wrestling her.”
Persephone Has Unfinished Business With Mercedes Moné In CMLL & AEW Women’s Roster.
That rematch came at CMLL’s La Noche event on March 6, 2026, in Arena Mexico, with Persephone challenging Moné for the CMLL World Women’s Championship and winning it, adding the promotion’s top women’s title to her growing résumé.
The victory also closed a loop tied to her Grand Prix win over Thekla the previous October, since Thekla had since become AEW’s Women’s World Champion, giving Persephone what Sports Illustrated described as unfinished business across both companies.
Persephone is All Elite
Persephone’s rising profile led to a formal AEW signing on January 14, 2026, with the promotion agreeing to a dual contract that let her continue wrestling regularly for CMLL while also appearing on American television.
She’s an incredible wrestler, and continued to compete for both AEW and CMLL simultaneously. Her rationale for deciding to sign with AEW wasn’t a difficult one for her to make.
“I think part of what sealed the deal with this dual contract when it was offered was just that, that you know I’ve been in CMLL for years now and I know these women well…Every few months, we get a fresh new face, but for the most part, we know each other very well.”
“We’re wrestling each other in the Arena (Mexico) really often. So when it came to the offer from AEW, it’s like a fresh new territory, it’s new faces, a new roster, like new opportunities that I can now kind of open myself up to.”
Persephone Has Unfinished Business With Mercedes Moné In CMLL & AEW Women’s Roster.
She’d already gotten a taste of AEW’s title picture the previous year, working a Survival of the Fittest four-way for the TBS Championship at Forbidden Door 2025 against Moné, Alex Windsor, and Billie Starkz, a match Moné ultimately won.
Persephone has also built a rivalry with Tessa Blanchard, beating her at a CMLL show in Las Vegas on April 16, 2026, a win that set up Blanchard’s own challenge for Persephone’s newly won CMLL Women’s World Championship.
A Heel the Crowd Won’t Boo
One of the more unusual dynamics of Persephone’s current run is the audience’s response to her despite her portrayal as a villain.
AEW’s Thunder Rosa, who has worked alongside her in tag matches and watched her career develop since the independent scene, called her out specifically as one of the standout stories of 2026, saying plainly that Persephone has been the breakout star of the year.
“I think she’s one of those talents that – she bet on herself a long time ago. She was a luchadora. She had a mask.
She lost her mask and she’s been working very, very hard to make that opportunity for herself…
And I think that she has found her time. And it’s been this year, I think she’s been the breakout star of the year I will say.
I think when she started coming last year and doing some of the shows, people started seeing how talented she was.”
“I mean, I’ve seen her grow since 2020 in the independent scene and now when I go to Mexico City and they love her regardless if she’s a heel or not, they like love her over there…
And now, how she’s been able to transition into American style, it’s also very interesting to see because when you see this transition, me going into Mexico and trying to transition into Lucha Libre and her.
However, she was born here, in America and she’s binational, having the fact that she has to transition into American style of wrestling is always very, very good to see.
“But she’s very smart and she knows what she’s doing. So, I’m really proud of her.”
CMLL women’s champion Persephone has been the ‘breakout star of the year,’ AEW’s Thunder Rosa says.
Rosa also pointed out the crowd reaction directly, noting that Mexico City audiences have embraced Persephone regardless of which side of the story she’s playing.
It is something Rosa said stood out to her as she’s watched Persephone’s trajectory from the independents through her current dual-company run.
Where Things Stand
By the middle of 2026, Persephone held the CMLL World Women’s Championship, while appearing regularly across AEW programming under her dual contract.
She remained one of the most closely watched names in women’s wrestling on either side of the border. She holds a degree in kinesiology alongside her in-ring career, a detail that’s occasionally come up in interviews as part of her broader identity as an athlete first.
From an anonymous independent circuit masked act to a two-promotion champion feuding with some of the biggest names in the sport.
Her rise over the past decade has been about as steep as it gets in modern wrestling and by most accounts, including those of her peers, it isn’t close to finished.
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