Athena reflects on her incredible journey in ROH as she gears up for Final Battle 2024.
The former WWE Superstar is the longest-reigning ROH Women’s Champion of all time. Athena won the title from Mercedes Martinez at Final Battle 2022 and has held it for over 740 days as one of the top wrestlers in ROH.
She is defending her title against Billie Starkz at Final Battle 2024, which is expected to be the main event of the pay-per-view. Athena spoke with Denise Salcedo and was asked to describe her journey as the ROH Women’s Champion.
She called it “wild and unexpected”, and explained that people watch ROH solely because she is there, wrestling weekly for the promotion.
“Wild and unexpected. I remember from the moment I won the championship, just knowing how much more I wanted to give. I say pro wrestling, but I also mean women’s wrestling. We’re very much in a male-dominated world—as far as anyone from the outside looking in, right?”
“But I think consistently, I’ve tried to show that it doesn’t matter your gender; it doesn’t matter your race. I’m here to deliver. I’m here to entertain. And I know I can do the job better than everyone else on the card. And if I didn’t do it better one night, I’m going to make sure that never happens again.”
“It’s just the amount of determination I have. Like, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, why watch ROH?’ Because I’m there. Because I’m up here taking years off my career, bumping, beating hussies down one by one, consistently defending my title, consistently wrestling Suie from down the street, Becca from down the block, and putting them through the best matches they’ve ever had.”
Athena: ROH Is The Women’s Division
“It’s irritating sometimes to sit there and have people try to discredit what I do. To have people say, ‘Oh, it’s just ROH.’ But here’s the thing: ROH is the Women’s Division. And I will not only speak for myself—I’ll speak for our entire ROH Women’s Division.”
“We are hungry. We are hungry. There’s a reason why they introduced the ROH TV Championship for the women: because we’ve been killing it nonstop. Time and time again, we’ve put our hearts, souls, and passion on a platter. And we constantly deliver.”
“From Leila doing a moonsault off the top of a ladder like a psychopath, to Abdon getting skewered in the head, to countless other women—Kiera Hogan being a beast, Diabla being a beast—we constantly put our hearts on our sleeves.”
“We go out there and show the world: Hey, watch ROH. We’re producing amazing stuff with women here. And consistently, we’ve proven that the women are the headliners of Ring of Honor. And a man can’t take that away from us.”
