BONUS The Friday Show - Athena Reaches Mount Olympus
I remember when I would come out and wrestle on the independent scene that literally most people would get up and go get popcorn.
You know, we were the popcorn match.
And I remember thinking, I'm so tired of people getting up and leaving when I go to wrestle.
Like, I'm so tired.
I'm so tired that I'm like, I'm going to do something to make everyone stay.
And that was kind of my mentality.
Like, no, I'm going to make them stay and watch me.
Hey, Full Marin people.
This is The Friday Show.
I'm Brendan.
My co-host Chris is on assignment this week in Parts Unknown.
That's the kayfabe version.
The shoot version is he's in Syracuse for work, but that doesn't sound as cool.
Parts Unknown, always my favorite place a wrestler could be from.
Although it doesn't make a ton of sense if you think about it.
It's like he works for the company.
He's from Parts Unknown.
That's where you send his check?
Like that's, I would think you would need to know where he lives.
Parts unknown.
That's what he puts on his tax return.
Anyway, that aside, we are still going to do something here today.
I am not alone.
I will be in conversation with someone in just a minute here.
And if you're a wrestling fan, I think you're going to enjoy this.
If you're not, and you're just hanging around for the bonus content here on the Full Marin,
I think one of the only things that's missing from this talk and any other talk we have on WTF is Mark.
I mean, I had this conversation and it has a lot of the hallmarks of any creative person who comes on the show and talks about their journey to get to the place that they're at and the struggles and challenges and just the general path a creative person has to take to do the thing they want to do.
This conversation happened because today, Friday night, March 31st, there is a pay-per-view called Ring of Honor, Supercard of Honor, and that's being held out in Los Angeles.
This happens every year because this weekend is also WrestleMania, and so a lot of wrestling promotions hold events this weekend.
It's a time of high visibility for pro wrestling.
So Supercard of Honor is a longstanding Ring of Honor tradition.
And this year, their women's champion is Athena.
Athena is a wrestler formerly known as Amber Moon in the WWE and is now at the top of the Ring of Honor promotion as the number one female on the roster there.
And it coincided with a recent heel turn that I'll talk to her about.
But I mostly wanted to speak to her about her journey to getting there because...
If you look at Athena, she doesn't seem like she would be a bully heel type.
She's about 5'2 or so.
She's got a big, bright smile, seems like a classic baby face.
And yet here she is as a champion of this promotion, and she's going to have a women's championship match on tonight's pay-per-view.
And I was just interested, how did she get there?
Here is my conversation with Athena.
If you've never seen her in action...
I would recommend maybe while you're listening to this, just do some YouTube videos of her recent matches on AEW Dark and Dark Elevation, where she is just beating the snot out of her opponents.
And that is why she's very good at what she does and is currently the champion of Ring of Honor.
So this is me talking to Athena just the other day.
Hi, how's it going?
I'm good.
How are you?
Where are you?
I am in Dallas right now.
Oh, you're in Dallas.
Oh, okay.
So last week was Independence, Missouri, and this week is St.
Louis.
So do you typically go home in between if they're in the same state like that?
Yeah, you just try to get out?
Yeah.
I try to go home.
We have the fortune of getting all the construction done.
I had to get like four doors replaced due to one of the storms we had.
So I like I had to come home.
But anytime, like if it's more than 48 hours, I'm going to try to sleep in my bed.
Yeah.
Well, what do you is there still kind of like a lot of road dog in it when you guys are trying to make towns like or is that it seems like this from my perception, it seems like that's less these days.
um i feel like for wwe it's still about the same because they do have like three to four live events a week not to mention tvs and stuff like that you know the benefit of aew is like we have live events we're just now starting them it's once a month but most of the time we're doing everything in one day so we're doing dark dark elevation uh dynamite and rampage all in one day
And then now as of this week, we're doing Ring of Honor as well.
And then we have Orlando tapings as well.
So it's a little less travel, which is lovely on my body.
It seems like you're in Texas a lot, too.
Like AEW has quite a bit of a lot of Texas dates are going to be in Texas again in May.
And you won your ROH championship in Texas.
That must be cool to just be in the home base for that stuff.
Yeah, it's awesome.
I think like the cool part is, is there are parts of Texas that I didn't get to explore with WWE.
So with AEW, I'm getting to see all of my old stomping grounds from the Indies because I was there for almost a decade of San Antonio, Austin, Houston, even my legit hometown, Garland, Texas, which it's very weird and bizarre to like wrestle in the building I graduated out of.
But like, it's awesome.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Garland is a stop, a regular stop.
And did you ever have wrestling come to your town when you were a kid?
Or it was usually in Dallas or you'd have to go to Houston or Austin or something?
Sort of.
I never really got to see a lot of wrestling as a kid unless it was on TV.
Yeah.
when i started wrestling on the independency and i found out this whole other world that was out here i'm like what there's stuff in mesquite there's stuff in rockwell this is crazy so like it became a whole new eye-opener for me but like i wish i would have known that as a kid because you could have seen like all these up-and-comers like i think aj styles wrestled down the street at this uh promotion called pcw that used to be on upn back in the day you know all of these smaller companies where you saw like your lance hoy
your monty browns those guys who are wrestling on the norm every weekend i wish i would have known about that as a kid it would have made it so much more special when i actually got to see them on tv what era did you start watching cool well this is a very tricky question because i remember watching wrestling uh with my grandfather black and white from the sportatorium days you know no kidding
Yeah.
So it was up there with religion, wrestling, and chores.
And there were two of those things.
As a kid, I didn't want to do, so wrestling became the default.
But as I grew older, I fell out of it.
And then when I became...
I think 11 or 12, it became the really cool raunchy thing of the Attitude Era with the Rocks, Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, Taka, super crazy, like the chaos of pro wrestling because I never even knew that WCW was a thing until the Invasion Angle.
And then now I'm like, I have all of this other wrestling to go and find and watch.
So it was really awesome across the board just to just have that in my life.
So I grew up like with wrestling, I feel like when I could actually understand it.
I mean, that's to a person, whether it's someone who's in the business or whether it's a fan or even people who are lapsed or they remember it in somewhat everyone I've ever spoken to.
And I'm sure it extends to other people.
It's like, oh, yeah, I got into it when I was a kid.
And this is the thing that left an impression.
And then you just kind of build on it from there.
And sometimes it's about building and backfilling.
Like you're saying, you start to go, wait a minute, what's all this stuff about?
That existed before I was paying attention to it.
Let me go find out about that.
Yeah, there were so many crazy characters.
Like, I feel like I'd never liked any of the main eventers.
Sorry, guys.
But but I was all about like the Hollies with Crash Holly coming out with the weight.
Oh, funny.
And then Eddie Guerrero, Lie, Cheat, and Steel.
Like, I loved all the crazy characters.
Super Crazy was one of my favorites, man.
Just Hurricane.
Like, the crazy out there characters that would just do whatever they wanted to do because, like, that's...
what they felt like in that time period.
I even loved Right to Censor with Ivory and Stephen Richards.
It was just really awesome.
And it was this whole world of just chaos that you didn't get to see on normal TV and cartoons and stuff.
So I just fell in love with all these crazy kooky characters.
It's part of the reason why I say I never have a favorite wrestler because I just...
Fell in love with everything in that era.
But what were you doing at the time as like a teenager?
Were you into like comics?
Were you into music?
Like what were your interests then?
I did a lot of everything.
Like I think at like 10, 11 years old, I played soccer nonstop.
I played selector, what you guys would call club at the time.
I was trying to get on my brother's football team at the time as well.
Yeah.
I did a little bit of everything, but, like, I was a super big nerd.
I played video games.
I read comic books.
And, like, because of that, I got bullied a lot.
We won't go into that.
But, like, you know, it became a, like, I was my own little person in this tiny little bubble.
And I had me and my friend Amy.
And, like, that was us.
We were pro wrestling, video games, comic books.
Like, that was it.
Yeah.
But that's interesting that you were also crossing over into athletics.
Was that really like a Texas thing?
Like it was basically a prerequisite?
So I have the fortune of not really liking sports as a kid.
And then because my brother got to play football and baseball and softball, it's like, man, like I remember just like playing at the daycare soccer one day and I scored a goal by complete accident.
Like the ball just went in.
I was like, shh.
And it was the greatest feeling in the world for me.
And I was like, I want to play soccer now.
Like, let's go.
And so I ended up, like, actually, you know, training, playing with the Dallas sidekicks at their training camps, like, here and there.
And just really fell in love.
And I thought, like, I was going to be the next Mia Hamm, that I was going to go international, play for Liverpool Black.
You know, like, and just, like, I had this big dream of, like, I'm going to be the soccer player that, you know, and travel around the world playing soccer.
And wrestling kind of changed all that because I just fell in love with it.
Like I was playing college soccer at the time when I actually just jumped into the pro wrestling world.
And I was just like, this feels right.
This feels like me.
And like, I just gave all of that up for pro wrestling.
Were you doing drama stuff like in school?
I've always been a hard worker.
And I think like the main thing is like when I decided that like, hey, this wrestling thing might be for me.
I remember going on like OVW's website when dial up Internet was a thing.
And they were like, hey, if you're a kid and you want to be a pro wrestler, these are the things you need to do.
You need to eat healthy.
Have a steak.
I hate steak.
Like like a chicken breast, no seasoning.
And they have like this whole little rundown.
You need to play sports.
And I was like, nailed that.
And it's like you need to perform theater or cheerleading or dance.
And I was like, oh, let's try cheerleading.
So I tried out for cheerleading my eighth grade year.
And I ended up making the team with all of these girls.
And if you know Texas cheerleading, it is extremely competitive.
It is extremely like these girls have been there since like three years old, learning spots and, and like stunting and flips and all of this stuff.
So like for me to come in at like 13, I'm like, hi, everyone.
I know nothing.
You know, that was a big shot for everyone, but that was like the extent of my performing.
I always wanted to do theater, but because I was doing band cheerleading, soccer,
tennis softball like i just got drafted into sports because texas and a lot of the times they were like hey we'll pass you on this test if you come play in the softball game and i'd be like i sure will i sure will come through and play so like you know because i knew i was i knew i was athletic you know and i would i was a straight a student with the exception of ap civilizations i just could not pass that class to save my life god bless you for even taking it
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It was it was probably the hardest class I've ever taken, but I was an AP student, you know, so like school is very important to my parents.
Athletics were one of those things where I could just let it all fly out there on the field, on the court, wherever it was.
And so, yeah, it just always instilled me instilled in me to be a hard worker and just throw in one hundred and twenty thousand percent of whatever I do.
But now I saw when you won the ROH title at the ROH Final Battle pay-per-view, your mom was right there on camera.
She was big mood.
Like it was super cool to see your mom with a nice beer enjoying herself.
And I wonder, was it always like that?
Were they always supportive of it?
So very fun fact.
I feel like you're going to get a very good exclusive here.
So the lady that they showed on camera was not my mom.
Oh, no kidding.
Was it was it was it worked, mom?
No.
So my dad is actually in the shot.
This is actually Keith Lee's mom, which I find hilarious because I've known Keith Lee's mom since I was like 18, 19 years old.
We used to be in a faction together.
She actually tried to pull me out of the ring when we turned on Keith Lee on a show.
It was...
So it's very funny.
So she's also seen my whole experience from starting on the independent scene and then winning the title.
So it's very funny.
I was like, oh, like they're like, hey, we got all these awesome shots of your mom.
And I go, that is not my mom.
That's my dad in the corner right there.
That is not my mom.
uh well i mean at least your parents were there like that's that's exactly exactly no it's so it's always really funny because i'm like well you know technically she could be a mom of mine you know that's right that's right because i've been over to her house everything like that she's an amazing lovely woman i just thought it was funny i was like this this is fitting but uh yeah my parents um it's weird because they were so heavily academic based they were like sure
You make straight A's, you get a good job, you go to a good college, and then you're set for life.
And so that was always something that I fought with because when I had done my first day of wrestling training, I fell in love with it that I was like, screw this college stuff.
I changed my major so many times.
I went from veterinary to accounting to chemistry to kinesiology to athletic training to nursing to respiratory to...
Just a plethora of things.
And I changed my major like every two months and I was in college for like four or five years.
But nothing felt like pro wrestling did.
It just felt right.
It felt like this is where I'm supposed to be.
It's a very bizarre feeling and I can't really explain it.
I don't think it's bizarre to anyone listening to this who has spent inordinate amount of time watching it in their lives.
Yeah, I just it just felt like this is the place for me.
And so I had I had eventually dropped out of college, you know, and I was just like, I'm wasting all this money that I could be putting into wrestling.
And I remember I had been training for like six months or something like that.
And I dropped out of college to go to a WWE call tryout.
at FCW so I got invited to the very first one and so like it was like hey dad I'm not going to college anymore and he's like what you know and so they literally thought I was lying about this WWE try and I remember my dad was like no no no I'll drive you to the I'll drive you to the airport we'll see if you're actually going and then like when I got back he was like
so you actually went to the wwe and so that's kind of they weren't like extremely like supportive they supported me not the ideal of pro wrestling um but when i got signed to wwe they were like oh my gosh she finally did it she they were just there and ever since then they just been just behind me ever every step of the way yeah
it's interesting that costume you wore, uh, at that ROH final battle, it incorporated, uh, some of the visuals from everything, everywhere, all at once in it.
And, you know, I'm reading into this and I was just happy to talk to you about it and get your actual take on it.
My reading into that was like a story that's about, um,
People feeling comfortable with themselves coming into their own, kind of declaring who they are and being who they are, even with this multitude of life behind them.
Like, it felt like you, winning that championship, standing there in, you know, what, 40 minutes away from your hometown?
You're kind of like, this is who I am.
I'm this.
So, you know, that's my interpretation of it.
How did you feel about it?
That night, it was it was very much so a movie that touched me on a completely different level.
And I so because I dealt with so much of that, not necessarily with my mom, but with my dad butting heads of him telling me.
how to live my life, what to do.
And it was very, very bizarre because literally the college that I dropped out of to wrestle was where I won the ROH championship, literally across the street from the dorm that I lived in.
Like you, like it was just right across the street.
That's the dorm that I lived in.
That's the college I dropped out of.
So it was like,
a very humbling moment.
And like, just, it came full circle.
Like, this is where I thought that I belonged.
And this is like, I did everything for them, everything for them.
And when I finally just stepped on my own two feet, when I finally was like, no, this is who I am.
This is who I'm going to be.
And I'm unapologetic, like of just trying to be
a vampire werewolf person trying to be like this goody two shoes nerd.
And it's just like, no, this is me.
And I'm making a statement on putting my foot down and either you're rolling with me on this or I'm going to leave you in the dust.
And that's just literally like what it came down to.
So when this movie came out, it was just everything that I was feeling and,
And I was like, you know what?
I'm going to do the blood splatter on my face with the foil.
I'm going to wear this gear.
It was one of the first years that I ever got made.
I won Booker T's PWA championship in it.
I actually wrestled my first match in Ring of Honor in the same colored gear.
which was a white and red trim with mesh on the side.
So I really wanted just an ode to everything that I was on the Indies.
And then to come full circle of going through Ember Moon, going past that and showing the world that I'm moving on from that.
And I'm going back to my roots of who Athena is, who Athena wants to be and who Athena wants to present on a platter.
Like that just was the overall circle for me.
So like your interpretation is pretty spot on to be honest with you, but it was just like, this is,
This is me.
Either you're with me or you're not.
And what did your parents do?
You know, what was their careers or are their careers?
um my dad calibrates machinery uh so he is if i'm not mistaken he's the first person from his family to graduate from college uh if i'm not mistaken i'm pretty sure that's accurate you know so like school meant a world of a deal to him because he's from a small town in east texas called henderson uh my mom's from a small town in jacksonville uh
Like so they're from East Texas and like everyone on my mom's side is heavily educated.
You know, her sister is a master teacher.
Her brother worked for Exxon.
So like they traveled around the world.
So like I said, like education was a major part of like my life.
It had to be there.
Well, you're reminding me a lot of someone else we've had on our show is Donald Glover.
And he said it was very hard what he called being a black nerd.
He was like, I felt I had to hide.
And I had parents who were heavy academic achievers, and they wanted me to pursue academics.
But my nerdiness led me to creativity.
And I'm wondering for you, like you're spending all this time, you know, you're saying you're good in school, you're taking AP courses, and then you have to go to college and there's these like expectations on getting somewhere with that degree.
Where did the switch flip that you were able to be like, this is it, I'm going to do the wrestling?
So like slightly different, right?
My dad worked in electronics, so he was all about state-of-the-art technology, which is why video games were always prevalent in the house.
Like as long as you made A's and B's, you got to play the video games.
C comes on that report card, you're not playing nothing for the next six weeks till you get your grades up.
But like, I've always felt like-
I was creative or I have this massive imagination.
I used to write fan fiction.
Like I will not go into detail about that, but I used to write like fan fictions of the Chronicles of Riddick and like wrestling storylines and Pokemon storylines and like what could be video games and adventures that me and my friends would go on in fantasy world.
And like I have binders and binders of this chaos.
And so the creativity has always been there.
maybe some dude a bit, but like when I, when you get to college, it's just like, oh, there's no parental supervision.
There's no one making sure that you do these things.
Right.
And I was still a straight A student until I started wrestling.
Let me, let me clarify that.
But it was just one of those like, okay,
Now that I don't have anyone telling me, no, what can I do?
What boundaries can I push?
I used to sing karaoke all the time.
I was the only underage person in the karaoke bar because one of the wrestlers ran the karaoke bar.
And so this whole new world was there for me to explore.
And I was like, I want to get out of Garland, Texas.
I want to get out of Dallas.
I want to travel the world.
Because every time I would go someplace new, it would be like, whoa, this is here.
Whoa, that is there.
This is awesome.
And it just made Garland feel so small.
And I just wanted to go bigger and bigger and bigger.
And like the creativity of me designing my gear led into me creating a new move set or taking things, picking things apart and merging things together.
And just the creativity aspect is just infinite, you know?
And that's the one thing I love about this business is that it consistently evolves and it consistently changes and it makes you think.
It makes you want to be more creative.
What's the next thing?
What's the next big thing I can do?
And that's kind of where my brain is now.
Coming into this weekend, I'm like, I have...
Emmy and then I will face maybe a Yuka who knows she hasn't accepted my challenge yet but like I'm sitting here and I'm like what can I do what can I do what's the next big thing what's what's next what's gonna set me above everyone else like I constantly have to evolve which is where that creativity jumps in which is which is why I consistently I'm like all right go go go go I started designing my entrance jackets I started trying to come up with
new entrances like as far as Sean's and you know it's just like a whole presentation and the creativity of it is like that's kind of my favorite part now to be honest with you well I've seen you on the national stage until last year only as a baby face and uh but I I'm assuming that you had work as a heel um elsewhere in your career is that true
So when I was on the Indies, I always worked as a heel.
Oh, really?
Primarily a heel?
I was always the bad guy until like my last year.
Now wait, how'd that work?
Because you, like, I'll just say, seeing you, maybe it's the perception just because I've mostly only seen you as a babyface, but you have all the typical babyface qualities.
So why do you think you were primarily a heel on the Indies?
I wanted to be the bad guy and not necessarily the bad guy.
I wanted to like this stems back from my childhood of being bullied.
I wanted to say what I wanted to do, do what I wanted to do.
And I didn't want anyone to step in my way because I was seeing all these pro wrestlers on TV get to defend their actions.
So when I became Athena on the independent scene, it was everything I wanted to be as a person.
Because at that time, I was very reserved.
I was very shy.
I was afraid of being a nerd because I had gotten bullied so much.
I was afraid to be me, right?
And Athena became this whole persona of everything I wanted to be in my real life.
Someone that wasn't afraid to speak their mind.
Someone that wasn't afraid...
to get their hands dirty and so that's kind of where athena came from in that aspect of things so like because of that mentality i became the bad guy everywhere and was it a bully heel type of thing like like you're doing now where you were you know not so much not so much more of a um i i'm using other people's words uh because i don't want
to disrespect anyone but people compared me to like a stone cold at the time like uh i think now so it's more of a bully because i think that's just new and fun for me because right i don't know being a badass sometimes is overrated
I know that seems weird, but it's so one-dimensional.
But also, it's funny.
It so quickly turns into babyface territory because people cheer an antihero, right?
So I was noticing...
I was at the L.A.
Forum show in January and you were on a dark elevation match there and you were getting a lot of cheers.
And this was already into your heel turn.
And I think it's just like you and obviously didn't transition back to babyface or anything, but it's you do have to work at actually.
kind of creatively playing the heel, which I noticed you did last night when I watched the dark elevation from last night.
Like that's a very clever way to keep that heel character going in terms of these type of squash or enhancement talent matches.
Yeah, I think I think being a heel is so much harder than what it used to be.
Yeah.
Since like you used to come out, you'd be like, oh, you're ugly.
You're you're stupid.
And people be like, oh, we hate her.
Right.
And now they're like, you're ugly.
They're like, yeah, I looked in the mirror this morning.
You know what?
Thank you for speaking that truth.
And you're like, what?
Yeah.
So you have to find different ways.
And I find that more so now it's weird because sometimes we go to I'll get booed out of the building and then other towns we go to.
They're like, oh, yes, we get to see her murder this poor child.
No.
No, but I want you to boo me.
I remember going to, what was it?
We went to Canada a couple of weeks ago and I worked this girl, Taylor Risen.
And she was, she's really good first off.
And I remember telling her, I was like, I'm going to get booed.
So this is going to be so easy.
Don't worry about it.
Canada hates me.
If I've learned anything about the last time I was here, Canada and me just, we're good.
We're good.
You don't have to worry.
Then I go out and they're like, you
yeah she's here and i'm like oh no yeah but like it's calling those audibles and just kind of sticking to your guns and doubling down on being the bad guy being the person that people want to hate you know and that i think is where i'm comfortable at because i don't know it's easier to get people to hate you than to get people to like you which is where i feel um
A lot of people didn't understand my character in WWE to some extent because of that, because sometimes it's harder to like someone than to hate them.
Well, did you I mean, you talk about the calling an audible on these kind of things and just kind of rolling with the punches, so to speak.
But I mean, this current heel turn really happened as an audible.
Would you say that's accurate?
Like what happened?
It happened in Toronto.
If anyone listening to this isn't aware, this was a match with Toronto with a local competitor, Jodie Threat.
And Athena was booed in the match and leaned into it, got, you know, leaned into the aggression of it.
And, you know, it's really interesting.
I went back and watched that match and I noticed that like the current heel you're playing is
was in place in that match, your mannerisms and everything.
So it seems like, I mean, that was when I knew, oh, she's done this before as a heel.
It came very naturally.
It was a very bizarre moment, right?
Because they just loved Jodi.
And that's something that we weren't, well, I wasn't expecting.
My producer at the time goes, hey, she's kind of like a local hero here.
So just be aware that if you get booed, just switch it up.
And he had mentioned that.
No one relayed the message to Jodi, sadly.
But she went with the flow and she was awesome.
She was great.
And just because of everything going on, it was just the perfect culmination of I felt so at home.
I felt so in my own mental space.
I was just like, cool, you know how to do this.
I wasn't phased in calling that audible was just...
I don't know, more natural than it was.
And I just remember seeing everything on the Internet explode after that.
And I was just like, OK, cool.
Let me run with this.
Let me run with it.
Let me do it because I know how to do this.
And if this is if people really want to work themselves into a shoot, I'm going to let them work themselves into a shoot.
And then I'm going to prove the next week and the week after that and the week after that.
that like you guys have no clue who I am and what I do and so like this just kind of evolved into what I'm doing today and it's constantly me trying to push boundaries to the next level to the next level to the next level to the next level you know because like the one thing I will say is I never wanted to be a part of something and be content with
I want to be a part of something and be a contributor to help it grow, to watch it flourish, to build everyone else up around me in that same process.
Is that the thinking behind like something with that match I just watched with Tootie Lynn?
It was a dark elevation match that aired this week.
And, you know, there's a unique ending where, you know, just kind of
gave her a real haymaker and knocked her out.
Are you trying to now think about like, how do I get people wondering, am I really going overboard on this?
Is it getting, is it so aggressive that someone's actually hurt?
You know, is that part of your thinking on it?
Yes.
Like I want people to question, like, so let's go back to like,
old school like wrestling right the perception of wrestling is to make you believe what i'm doing right and i feel like over the time period we've lost that art right and yes wrestling evolves and like we have all these supreme aerialists that i wish i could do a quarter of what they do
But at the same time, when you can see a Jon Moxley, a Roman Reigns or something, just throw one punch and the person drops, listen to the crowd.
Listen to that interaction of like, oh, snap.
When you see Bryan go out there, listen to them.
And he is literally stomping muscles into these guys.
And the crowd loves it.
So my interpretation of that is...
What can I do?
What can I do to get that reaction?
And that's kind of what I've been going into.
Like when we first started this, like it was an audible with Jodi that turned into, okay, how can we do this every single week?
How can we I think one time we had one of the lovely ladies that I got to work, we had her not stand up for something.
And then I just got down and lost my crap on her.
And people are like, holy crap, Athena's not playing around, you know, and that's the reaction I want.
Right.
If our goal is to make you think, oh, snap, did she go too far?
oh, is she doing, she's really trying to hurt them, like that I've done my job.
And I don't think a lot of people understand that.
To some extent, they don't like to be worked.
And I think it's hilarious because I'll get messages, oh, she's going to hurt another person.
Oh, she's going to do this.
And never in their minds did they realize that
oh, wait, she's been doing this for 18 years.
Never in their mind did they think, oh, she's been trained by Skandar Akbar.
She trained with Lance Hoyt, Rodney Mack, Jazz, Booker T. She has a wrestling pedigree.
She might know what she's doing.
And it's so funny to me that they're like, she's so unsafe, she's dangerous, but that's what I'm going for.
So congratulations, guys.
I won.
I mean, I'll say this, too, so that you don't have to.
There's there's also a culture of, you know, trolling and, you know, and this is I'm not saying this is specific to wrestling fans.
It's in all fandoms.
It's, you know, just try to be a Star Wars fan or something or an actor in a Star Wars movie.
And you get, you know, brutalized online all the time.
But it's it's like the the the.
impulse to use kind of bad faith arguments to, to make a point that serves an agenda of whether that's agenda is, you know, anti AEW or anti, you know, having women.
Like I noticed that when, uh, you know, the women are in a street fight and they bleed and then there's this, you know, multiple day long online discourse about, Oh, they're bleeding.
That's the, that shouldn't be allowed.
And the forget even just the sexism of it, which is right there on its surface.
Um,
It's also, when you just look at the logic of it, it doesn't make any sense.
It doesn't make any sense why someone would point to an Athena match as being, as looking like someone taking liberties.
And at the same time, they're watching, you know, anyone in the Blackpool Combat Club, you know, deliberately punching each other in the face.
And I wonder how much of that, how difficult that is to just go out there and do your job and kind of drown out the noise.
So...
Just to kind of touch on that a little bit.
I think people forget like where women's wrestling was 10, 15 years ago.
Right.
We, we gotta, we gotta go back and look at where men's wrestling was 10, 15 years ago compared to where women's was women's wrestling was 10, 15 years ago.
Cause I remember when I would come out and wrestle on the independent scene that literally most people would get up and go get popcorn.
Right.
You know, we were the popcorn match.
And I remember thinking, I am so tired of people getting up and leaving when I go to wrestle.
Like, I'm so tired.
I'm so tired that I'm like, I'm going to do something to make everyone stay.
And that was kind of my mentality, like on that independent scene three, four years in.
I'm like, no, I'm going to make them stay and watch me.
And so kind of fast forward, we saw Paige and Emma go out there and I'm sorry, Soraya and
And Emma go out there and just kill it and show what women can do on a national platform.
And I remember just being so happy because we were doing that at Shimmer.
We were doing that at Ring of Honor.
We were doing that at WSU Shine Wrestling.
We had already been doing that for years.
But finally, we finally got that platform.
to show what women could do.
And it caught on.
And that led to the women's revolution.
That led to the women's revolution.
You know, the first ever all women's pay-per-view that we've been doing all women's shows for years and years before that.
So to the...
TV audience, right?
This is still new for them, right?
When you look at how far evolution was, what was that, five, six years ago?
That wasn't that far ago, right?
And then we have all of these women who have done so much to keep pushing for, I don't want to say equality, but I feel like that's the right word.
equality in terms of fans watching like that's all we want we just want you to sit back and enjoy our match just like you would the blackpool combat club just like you would a jericho match just like you would a stokely hathaway just like you would uh the gun boys right like that's all we want and so we are going to continue pushing that boundary we are going to continue to fight what we believe we deserve
Because at the same time, like we take the same bumps as them.
We take the hits.
We risk our careers and our lives just as much as the guys do.
But for some reason, anytime we want to take a step forward, sometimes the internet audience is like, no, no, no.
You guys need to go back over there.
And we're just not willing to do that.
Like, we don't say anything.
We sit by and kind of just twiddle our thumbs and be like, okay, okay, okay.
But when it comes time, like Jamie Hayter, Ruby, Britt Baker, all of these women, Jay Cargill, we will go out there and show you guys, like, we don't care where you think we need to be.
We're going to keep moving forward and pushing those boundaries.
That's awesome.
And I mean, I think it clearly has paid off for you in a creative sense.
I wonder for you, do you think like from a from a performance sense, are you getting to have the matches that you want to have?
Like, I mean, a lot of it like is you're building character through these things.
But, you know, this week is a it's a kind of a skewed week for me to ask that because you have two huge matches.
So are you feeling satisfied from a performance standpoint?
You know what?
Since coming to AEW, I've been satisfied from a performance standpoint.
Like I said, I've been wrestling for almost 18 years, working on 19 at this point in time.
I've been wrestling a very long time, and sometimes the moves don't mean as much as...
much as the character moments, right?
Like, and it's something that I have to tell people, it's like, when you go back and you look at wrestling, what do you remember, right?
Yeah, sure, you might remember Ricochet versus Ospreay on the indies, because that was just insanely a Marvel movie come to life, right?
But, like, what are the moments that you remember?
Because, like, I remember, like,
the pin after hurricane chokeslam the rock on SmackDown and watching the crowd erupt.
I remember, I'm sorry.
I love you from Shawn Michaels.
I remember like, sadly, I remember the Crow and White thing as well.
But like, these are, these are like the moments.
I remember the Mickey James promo.
I'm a real woman.
Those are things that I remember.
And like nowhere in that has been like,
oh man did you see that sequence they did at Wrestlemania 9 leading to the finish man I can tell you everything from here some people can but for me it's always been about the characters and the moments and because I have been wrestling so long I've always wanted that character and I'm finally getting to explore that on a tv product and yeah I make mistakes everyone does but like the fact of the matter is is that I learn and
And I keep growing.
But as far as the performances, this is a very, very wild week for me.
I got Emmy.
Yeah.
How are you feeling about that?
Knowing that you'll face Emmy Sakura and that'll air on Thursday.
And do you sit here in Dallas knowing, okay, tomorrow I'm going to get hit really hard.
How does that have an effect on you?
In my brain, it's like...
nerve wracking on some level and like this is me peeling back the curtain just a little bit um because i feel like for so long i just have had something to prove and this is going to be that week for me this is this is me wrestling emmy um
Uh, we wrestled once before in, uh, I think I posted a photo on social media.
She chopped me one time and I had a handprint like right here for like two weeks and I'm sitting here.
I'm like, okay, we got Emmy on Thursday, you know?
And like part, part of me is like, I'm not the type of person to phone it in.
I'm not the type of person that's going to give people any less than what they deserve.
Um,
And me going into this week, I'm very nerve-wracked.
I'm very nervous because I don't want to go into any match that I have this weekend and be a disappointment.
And I think that on some level, like...
I am very worried.
I am going to get hit very hard all week and I'm going to hit just as hard back.
But like Emmy is someone that I absolutely loved.
Our first match was when I was a baby face and I absolutely loved it.
Like I just hadn't experienced anything like that since the independence scene.
And since I had become a Ring of Honor champion, it was something that I was like, I want Emmy.
I want Emmy.
Please let me have Emmy again.
Please.
I need Emmy again.
Please give me some time and give me Emmy.
I want Emmy.
And then like, they're like, okay, cool.
You're going to do it before the pay-per-view.
And I'm like, okay.
so like on some level like i'm i'm very excited because i know the type of match that we're going to deliver is going to be absolutely amazing it's going to be hard hitting because like that's just what we do and then going into not knowing who my opponent is on uh friday for the uh super card like that's also nerve-wracking because like uh even though i challenge shuka i don't know what
I don't know what's going to happen.
I could lose to any and then not make it to Supercard, you know.
So it's going to be a very interesting week.
I think more than anything, I'm just mentally trying to prepare myself because my body's good right now.
And like I said, I just want to deliver for all the fans out there that have stayed with me throughout this entire journey.
And just prove to them that like your faith isn't in the wrong hands.
That's a nice message to your fans.
It's like it's like I'm going to pay this off for you.
You were on this journey with me.
And, you know, if you stay on it, I deliver.
Yeah.
And Sunday I'm going to need all the cupcakes.
I need all the green apple Skittles.
TK never got them for me.
So, yeah, like I just, you know, Sunday I'm giving myself a nice little relaxation day.
I'm literally red eyeing back.
to um dallas and then i'm going to go see the dnd movie oh nice i'm big dungeons of dragons nerd if you couldn't tell by my but my house at all but um yeah i'm just very excited to um do all of this and just show the world like what ring of honor has to offer what the ring of honor women's division has to offer and just keep elevating every step of the way
Well, I appreciate you taking the time to do this with me on a week that's busy for you.
But I also know this is like, you know, it's kind of like a wrestling fan week.
And that includes the wrestlers.
Everybody knows there's going to be lots of great matches all week, all weekend long.
And people are excited.
I'm excited for this card.
This card is stacked on the ROH Supercard of Honor pay-per-view this Friday.
How far in advance do you generally know where you are on the card?
I'd normally walk in and find out that day.
That's gotta be, that's gotta be crazy.
Especially knowing all the matches on it.
No, it's, it's not.
That's the cool part about like pro wrestling.
No day is ever the same.
So like there are days when I would be at NXT and I'm like, they would have me follow Ricochet every night that I was NXT women's champion.
I was like, come on.
I can't, you know, they're like, no, you're just so good at the storytelling part.
I'm like,
But he just did a flip to the floor and got caught and then someone threw him again and he flipped on his feet.
I just, I remember just sitting there just like, why?
Why?
Like, I looked at Triple H one day.
I was like, really?
He's like, go out there and kill it, ladies.
I was like...
I know you just saw that, right?
And I pick on Ricochet because he's just an awesome friend of mine too.
But it's really just going out there and proving yourself.
Everyone's going to aim to steal the weekend, especially on this Ring of Honor show, because I feel like Ring of Honor as a brand just has so much to prove because so many people have doubted that it would even get off the ground.
So we're just going to go out there and swing, swing, swing, swing.
And it doesn't matter if you look or not, we're going to hit you.
Yeah.
Well, I'm looking forward to it.
I hope anyone who wasn't already planning on checking it out, I hope you do.
It's available on pay-per-view, Bleacher Report, all the other pay-per-view outlets that you can get it.
It's the ROH Supercard of Honor.
It's this Friday evening on the East Coast.
You're doing it at what time?
4 p.m.
West Coast time, I think.
Mm-hmm.
And it'll be a scene.
There is a lot to see.
And one of those things is Athena, the ROH Women's Champion.
Thank you so much for doing this with us.
Thank you for having me.
I had a blast.
All right, that'll do it for the Friday show today.
I want to thank Athena again for coming on.
She was a sweet person that was completely at odds with the bully she plays on television, just totally wrecking people.
And it makes it that much more impressive that she's able to do that believably and still be so incredibly nice and sweet when you're talking to her face to face.
So thanks again to Athena, and check out that Ring of Honor pay-per-view tonight.
It's one of the more budget-priced pay-per-views, and they've got an amazing card.
There's a tag team ladder match.
There's a match between Vakingo and Commander, those two luchadors we've been talking about in recent weeks.
And Eddie Kingston, who you heard on the Wrestling with Mark series, he will challenge Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor Championship.
So I think it's a good way to spend a Friday night.
You can also get it on demand afterwards.
It's available on pay-per-view outlets and on the Bleacher Report app.
And next week, I'll be back with Chris.
We'll talk about WrestleMania weekend, maybe some of our favorite WrestleMania memories.
Chris and I are probably going to go to the AEW show on Long Island next Wednesday, so we'll have a little report from that.
Talk to you then.