It’s a common question asked by All Elite Wrestling fans and observers: where is Athena and why is she exclusive to Ring of Honor?
Athena has worked AEW Zero Hours and has worked a Battle of the Belts in 2024, but she hasn’t been seen on an AEW Rampage since 2023. She hasn’t been on Collision. The last time she worked Dynamite was October 5, 2022. It has been over two years since Athena has been on the flagship show of All Elite Wrestling.
Athena has instead made Ring of Honor her home, starting at Final Battle 2022 when she defeated Mercedes Martinez for the ROH Women’s World Championship. She still holds that title to this day with a title reign soon to crack 700 days, the longest World championship in ROH history. She’s who the show revolves around.
For a lot of outsiders it’s hard to wrap your head around an ROH that revolves around the women’s champion seeing didn’t even have a world championship until 2018 with the Women of Honor Championship. The first women’s match in ROH history was in 2002 between Sumie Sakai and Simply Luscious, but women were rarely a part of the cards in matches. If you saw women in ROH, especially in the 2000s, they were usually working as managers.
Yet Tony Khan’s ROH has built around Athena, with the biggest storylines and biggest focus on HonorClub being about Athena. Tony Khan has invested in Athena as the main star, and used that focus to strengthen the women’s division around her. The women’s division in AEW was often criticized as a weakness in the company, and by building around Athena it helped elevate the rest of the division. Death Before Dishonor 2024 was proof of this, with three women’s matches on the card, and the Texas Death between Leyla Hirsch and Diamante arguably stealing the show.
Not only has Athena been an incredible champion for ROH but she’s helped build young Billie Starkz into the future of ROH. Only 19 years of age, Billie went from an independent wrestler similar to Nick Wayne being an attraction just by being better as a teenager than some of her contemporaries, into developing building blocks to eventually become a star in both ROH and AEW. The minions angle is definitely built around Billie one day usurping Athena as ROH Women’s World Champion, likely at Final Battle 2024 this year once the event is announced.
And while Billie Starkz might be the future of ROH? Athena is the future of All Elite Wrestling.
By keeping Athena off AEW TV, it did mean the women’s division in AEW missed having her on the card. But she likely wasn’t going to push aside the likes of Toni Storm and Mercedes Moné at the top. Sidestepping and building herself as one of the greatest champions in ROH history has allowed a situation where when Athena does come back to All Elite Wrestling? She’s going to as one of the top women in the division and poised to immediately be pushed into a championship slot.
When you see how Jamie Hayter returned without a title match or how Kris Statlander had to randomly turn back babyface to get one, it’s easy to see how due to the lack of TV time the women due to all of the talent needing to get on TV every week, it’s hard for slots to come by. If you’re not working May or Moné it’s hard to get a spot. It’s why Athena being exclusive to ROH worked so well.
But come 2025, if Athena is no longer ROH Women’s World Champion? The plan needs to be for her to become either AEW Women’s World Champion or TBS Champion. I do think with Grand Slam: Australia in February, the plan there is to be built around Toni Storm’s return to defeat Mariah May and regain her AEW Women’s World Championship. That might be a road taken up.
But the TBS Championship? That’s exactly the title Athena needs to target. What’s more important, is she needs to either win that championship or walk into Y’All In 2025 as TBS Champion. Athena was found at the press conference helping announce the event in Arlington, Texas, with Athena from Garland, Texas. There’s nobody better to help build around as the local star for the event.
AEW has worked in building a relationship with the Von Erich family in promoting events in Texas, and they do still have Dustin Rhodes on the roster as of the writing of this. Sammy Guevara is also a Texas native, but it’s a hard sell to build around someone trying to rebuild his own reputation with fans. The other choices for the men are Bryan Keith and E.J. Nduka, or a healthy Keith Lee. None of these are as perfect to build around like Athena.
By building this around Athena you also guarantee having one more name in the AEW roster who can work her ass off and give you a great match, and I’m sure Mercedes Moné would be happy to have a proper rival. The only real time the two worked against each other was back in 2018, when Athena as Ember Moon won a triple threat match including Moné and Ruby Soho. It was by far the best match of the night and proof that Athena was one of the best wrestlers in WWE, something they clearly took for granted.
AEW has been accused of taking Athena for granted by keeping her in ROH, but I think this will all end up being better than if they just had Athena working the occasional matches against people in the women’s division with little time to develop. No woman in AEW or ROH has got the time Athena has received in being able to develop as a character, a competitor, and a champion. AEW now has an opportunity to put that development to good use and make her the focal point of Y’All In. Once she finishes in ROH? The road for her in All Elite Wrestling is clear.
The Future is Athena.
