During a recent appearance on the “Grapsody” podcast, ROH Women’s World Champion Athena stated that while she’d like to perform more in AEW, there’s an internal hesitation within the company due to a fear she might “break their favorites.”
Athena will face Willow Nightingale in the semifinals of the Owen Hart Cup tonight on AEW Collision.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On wanting to do more in AEW: “Absolutely. I’ve wanted to for a very long time, but apparently, ‘Athena doesn’t play well with others.’ [laughs]. I don’t know what you’re talking about. All of these lovely women signed beautiful waivers saying, ‘I’m going to be challenging Athena to a match, I understand what I am doing. I am putting my life, body, everything at risk going into this match.’ They understand what they’re walking into. They understand that they might not walk out. Because of that, I feel like there might be a little hesitation (returning to AEW) because everyone doesn’t want me to break their favorites. It’s kind of a thing I do.”
On who she’d like to face in AEW, ROH being her priority: “I would love to challenge my buddy Kris Statlander. I would love to challenge Toni Storm. I would love that opportunity, but right now, Ring of Honor is my priority. I kind of feel like I’m getting to the point where I’ve broken all the porcelain, which is why I really wanted to be in the Owen, to showcase what I can do within in a different platform, and I got what I wanted. Of course, my priorities are straight. I’m wrestling on Collision this week. I’m crossing over all of that right now. I would love to do more, but honestly, we all know there are certain people who don’t want Athena on the show because they are afraid they’re going to be on the injured list.”
On who she’s beaten in ROH from the AEW roster: “We got Skye Blue. Hell, I beat her so bad she went back to AEW. Everyone that I’ve beaten in Ring of Honor has left and they don’t come back. They can’t cut it in Ring of Honor, so they go back to AEW, they go and hide there, but what’s going to happen when Athena comes there? Oh no. Their time is ticking. I’m going to come and clean house. If they want to run away from my brand, that’s fine. Eventually, I will come and find them. Right now, Ring of Honor is my priority. This championship means the world to me. Making an entire division step up means the world to me. Literally every person I’ve wrestled has left Ring of Honor. Sure, they come back, but they don’t even attempt to wrestle me again. I would at least try for a champion again, but I guess they don’t want it that bad. Lady Frost went and left. Vertvixen, Willow, the list goes on.”
