This Friday night, April 5th, Ring of Honor will have its first pay-per-view of the year SuperCard of Honor. Before her match against Hikaru Shida, we had the opportunity to talk to our minion overlord about her other minion Billie Starkz, Nyla Rose, her dominant title reign, and much more!
How does carrying ROH on your back feel every week?
Athena: My back hurts. No, I’m joking. It’s cool to have a platform like Ring of Honor and have the faith of Minion 5508, also known as Tony Khan, to take Ring of Honor on my shoulders. It’s weird because people say that I carry Ring of Honor and all I do is go out there and try to do the best job possible at the end of the day. I talk about it in character, but to some extent I mean it because I work hard and I know everyone works hard, but I work harder. I feel that whatever I put out there on TV and whatever I put out there in the ring you’re going to get a billion percent times infinity from me that is just how I am.
Last time we spoke, you talked about how you felt that your match against Willow deserved the main event spot on Death Before Dishonor, you have main evented two pay per views back to back, do you feel you should main event this weekend’s show?
Athena: Of course, I am going to say yes. I am so thankful that Tony has given me the ball twice, right and I never want to be greedy even though I should be. You also have Eddie Kingston vs Mark Briscoe for the ROH World Heavyweight Championship on the show so it’s up in the air. I am very grateful to be the first woman to main event two ROH pay-per-views back-to-back under the Tony Khan banner and I am privileged and humbled by that. Cause that on its own is a cool statement like I main evented with Claudio and Joe on the card.
My porcelain hussie best friend or frenemy Willow Nightingale went out there and killed it the first time and then Tony had enough faith in me and my performance in that to have me and Billie do it again in my hometown. I think it is cool to have those accolades under my belt and I would love a third. I would love to beat Shida in the main event spot in Philly where Athena used to stomp around with WSU and CZW and all of those different promotions. At this time I have to be reserved and know that I can’t have the ball every single pay-per-view.
Kimmy: “Well, you could?”
Athena: You’re right I can, but I genuinely don’t know and I am being 100% honest. The second time Tony made it a surprise when we walked into the building. The first time he had told me a couple weeks before and it was the whole big thing of keeping it a secret. It’s crazy and fun to have that with my boss, to be honest, and he has that faith and ability in me. So yeah, I would love to do a third. Do I think so? Absolutely. I am the forever ROH Women’s Champion and I am the Champion mainstay for ROH, but I also have to not be greedy in that aspect of things and I would love to kill it in the main event with Shida.
Kimmy: Now speaking of Shida she has beaten you before…
Athena: Nope, don’t go there minion, don’t go there. Like she did beat me before, but it’s not going to happen again because I was younger and I was different. I wasn’t about the violence yet. I feel as if I should let you finish your question, but I think I am going to get angry if you do.
I was just asking if you feel you met your match in Shida.
Athena: My what? I am going to give you a confident no on that one. I’ll say this Shida has beaten me before and she has traveled all around the world. I had her first match in the United States, but I was also a very young Athena at that time. I am not that wrestler anymore and I am certainly not that shy and afraid to talk to a person. I am very boisterous and aggressive and I am looking forward to doing this violence to Shida and knocking her a peg down the ladder. At the end of the day, it is a testament to everything that I have accomplished in ROH as a champion.
Hey, can she hang with the former AEW Women’s Champion, but where Shida has lost that title three times I have not lost this title once. I have only been pinned twice in my two-year tenure here at AEW/ROH. I have not been pinned or submitted since I have been in Ring of Honor. I am truly undefeated. At the end of the day, it is going to be a clash of two titans or the clash of a titan and a porcelain hussie, but at the end of the day, we are looking to make magic at Supercard. We are looking to make sure that no matter what happens at the end of the day we are leaving it all in the ring.
When you laid out the challenge for this weekend what was your initial reaction when Shida came out?
Athena: I mean I did not lay out a challenge, Shida just kind of walked out. She just came to work and heard me talking and she just decided to walk out. I do not know what my initial reaction was. I think I was like oh this could be cool, oh crap I could lose, but this is a match I always wanted, but also is this a match that I need right now on this dominant run. There were a lot of double-sided thoughts coming into my brain. Like, am I afraid? No of course not, but you know there is a little fear of losing the title there.
One of your minions will be wrestling for the ROH Women’s TV Championship, do you think that you and Starkz will have a clean sweep this weekend?
Athena: I am hoping so because I do not appreciate a comment that she made and if you guys tune into ROH TV this week you will see what I am talking about, but I won’t give any more details than that. I am very proud of Billie and everything that she has accomplished in just a short amount of time. She is only 19 years old. We have to give her every prop that is due. I take pride in her development as a minion, but it is cool to see her grow as an individual outside of our minion-ship. She is kind of the person who keeps me sane backstage if that makes sense to her and minion bestie Lexy. We truly are a family and I hope that Billie comes out on top. Unless I can’t beat Shida then I want her to lose because I am petty.
At the end of the day, Billie has worked so hard in her short ROH career going from hanging with me in the main event, taking a beating, standing up and acknowledging that she was wrong, and coming back to minionship. I am proud of everything that she has accomplished and am hopeful for her. I am trying not to get too emotional over it. You know what screw you, Billie. Minion 400,237 ¾. As I said, this is our year, this is the year of the minion overlord, the year of the minion bestie, the year of minion 400,237 ¾, this is truly our year.
This is the year of MIT and for this dream to come alive Billie has no choice but to win because if she doesn’t win she might be out of MIT forever I am just going to say that. There are plenty of minions that can line up and take her spot. Maybe Nyla Rose can fill out an application. I have a couple of others like Lee Moriarty who filled out an application at some point in time. We can get another minion, an on-screen minion for the minion overlord. In all seriousness, I know that she is ready to show out and I know that she is ready to show the world that she can make history. Aminata is no easy threat, so I am hoping for the best for her.
Although you have stated that they created the ROH Women’s TV Title because no one can defeat you, how cool is it to have another women’s championship in ROH?
Athena: It is awesome. It gives the women another opportunity to showcase themselves and it means something. I know for so long so many women in that locker room were just itching and clawing for an opportunity to show what they could do and having a secondary women’s championship on the brand allows that. Let’s face it, not everyone wants to go toe to toe with me because they are all afraid that they are going to lose. After all, they are. I have also beaten everyone on our roster except a couple of people who will not step up. So them getting another championship and another TV championship just gives more of a platform for women’s wrestling on my show. I said that I am an inspiration for every women’s division and I am so inspiring. My minion 5508 got us a television championship for the women.
Kimmy: I am always going to be honored that I have a lower minion number than Tony Khan. I don’t know how that happened, but I feel like I made it.
Athena: Do you know why it’s 5508?
Kimmy: No, I don’t.
Athena: Get a calculator! If you put it in the calculator and flip it upside down it spells boss.
Kimmy: Wow, that was creative, I like that.
Athena: Thanks, I’m a nerd.
You and Nyla Rose competed in the first ever two out of three falls tables match, which added to your already historic reign, how did the idea of the stipulation and match come together?
Athena: So, I was going on vacation which was well earned. Woop Woop. We had this idea to put me through a door at my school, which was all Tony’s idea. I will give Tony all the credit I said I have for this door. Let’s put me through the door. Nyla is a good buddy of mine and I have known her since I first started wrestling. We won’t say how long ago it was, maybe 19 years or something like that.
I met her and Su Young on my first wrestling trip and they were so warm and welcoming that we just instantly hit it off. We had lost contact over the years so when I debuted in AEW she was one of the first people to come up to me and say what did you not tell me aggressively I said oh my god I don’t have your phone number. Nyla is so cool and awesome and I had always wanted a match with her so this felt like the right time and place to do it.
For the two out of three tables, I was like hey I saw this match with The Hardys and I believe The WorkHorsemen where they did a cool thing where everyone had to go through a table to win the match. That is how I got the idea and then I think and please correct me if I am wrong I believe The Dudleys did a two out of three falls tables match back in the day or someone did because I was looking it up and I was like crap there has not been one done in forever.
I told Tony and he was like wow that’s awesome I do not think that has ever been done and I was like yeah I don’t think it has been done either, especially for the women. It had just made sense to go through that and have Nyla look extremely strong going in and coming out and just moving forward through that. It was a cool opportunity that we had all thought of because tables were Nyla’s thing when she first got to AEW, she was the Queen of the Tables. So everything made sense and just came together.
Towards the end of last year Nyla Rose awarded me with the Worst Person to work with on the convention scene award, since you and I have worked together twice do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Athena: Yes, absolutely.
What’s it like to have all the AEW talent love and respect you Kimmy?…
Thanks @NylaRoseBeast 💀 pic.twitter.com/5Mqfz6RJZV— Kimmy (@kimmy_sokol) April 3, 2024
Kimmy: What, why?
Athena: I mean you know it’s just some things you do. When I told you I wanted green apple Skittles, a kitten to pet, some HoneyJack, and some Tequila you didn’t deliver anything but a bottle of water and melted M&Ms. So I mean come on now, I feel like Nyla was on to something she said it out loud. I am a tad nicer in that I gave you a minion number. I am not saying that you are the best at your job cause you’re down there though. You might not be the very worst but you are a close second or third for sure.
Kimmy: Wow, I hope this weekend I do a better job at Wrestlecon.
Athena: I hope you do too. You need to be delivering all the needs. They want Whiskey, you get them Whiskey, they want puppies you get them puppies, they want Whataburger since we are in Philadelphia you make that happen for them, Kimmy.
Kimmy: I mean now that I am the legal age to get them alcohol I can make that happen.
Athena: See, you are growing. Growing pains we’ll learn you real good Kimmy.
