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With this Saturday's Ring of Honor Final Battle PPV set to emanate from The Lone Star State, PWInsider.com sat down with Athena yesterday to discuss the show, ROH, her battle against Mercedes Martinez for the ROH Women's Championship, the trust she has been given by AEW President Tony Khan and tons more.
Mike Johnson: Hey everybody, it's Mike Johnson in the audio section of PWInsiderElite.com. It is December 6, 2022, which means we're just a few days away from Ring of Honor Final Battle in Texas this Saturday afternoon live on Bleacher Report, pay per view, and Fite.tv for those of you who are listening internationally. Final Battle has been, since 2002, the time capsule for Ring of Honor. So many major moments and milestones for that promotion for the talents over the course, It sounds crazy to say this, over the course of the decades of existence of Ring of Honor. This year is going to be a little bit different. It's going to be the first Final Battle under the auspices and ownership of Tony Khan and there's going to be a lot of Ring of Honor championship matches, a lot of Ring of Honor talents, and one of the major matches that are going to take place this Saturday afternoon will feature Ring of Honor World Women's Champion Mercedes Martinez defending against our guest at this time Athena, no stranger to the Lone Star State at all. We'll talk about that. First of all, it's great to talk to you for the first time. Obviously every week is a big week for AEW but with Ring of Honor this weekend as well for Final Battle and being in such an important match, it's got to be an extremely exciting and busy week for you. So I thank you for sitting down and talking to us. How the heck are you today?
Athena: I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I cannot complain - just getting up. I recently like, was sick so I'm just now feeling better off that. So yeah, I'm just super pumped, excited, ready to get this week started and get to this pay per view so I can become the new Ring of Honor champion.
Mike Johnson: So you're no stranger to big time fight feels. We've seen you have major matches, not just an AEW but NXT and even the days of WSU. We've seen you be in big fight situations and deliver, but Final Battle's in Texas where you're from, where you originally trained under Booker T and Skandar Akbar and all these other great names. You know, does it make it a little bit more special knowing that this match and this show are basically in your backyard?
Athena: Special, I guess yes. I think it's just more personal because not only, like literally right up the road for me, it's just I don't know how to explain it like, I have so much more to prove because these are the people that watched me from when I was a pup in indy wrestling grow, go to WWE, do the NXT thing, become a champion there, go all around the world and wrestle and then now I'm right back where I started. And I feel like the pressure is on for me to deliver not only to those people, but to myself as well.
Mike Johnson: You obviously you started out in Texas. I got to ask you - memories of training under Skandar Akbar. I think most people remember him as a manager but he, you know, he was a great wrestler too, great stuff with Danny Hodge for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship and so forth. What was that experience like, in terms of life lessons?
Athena: I mean, I remember for my first month every single day Monday through Friday, running down Highway 80. Going up two miles in Mesquite to Town East Boulevard and running all the way back to the school and hoping I made it back before training. But you know, Ak was a no nonsense type of guy. He demanded perfection and I think that's why I'm so overly critical of myself even to this day, and I never get content. I'm always trying to push the limits, push the boundaries, because that's what he expected of us every time we came into training. So yeah, it is a weird field to talk about him because I haven't talked about him in a very, very long time. And like, I don't know, like I'm trying not to get emotional about it, cause he's no longer with us. Yeah, Ak is definitely the foundation of Athena. Like he actually gave me the name. So it's yeah, like, I'm trying not to get too emotional about it. But it's like, a little bittersweet. Not having him here but knowing like, he's a memory and like everything that he taught me paid off.
Mike Johnson: He was known as this great vicious heel. In recent months, we've seen a much more aggressive side of you starting with that AEW Dark match in Canada. You know, what brought out that side of you and were you surprised at the sort of blowback that it started to get in the beginning on social media because there were so many people who are aghast at you know, being so physically violent and being so aggressive in the ring, and it was weird for me because having seen you wrestle in so many places on the independents, I was like, she was always that aggressive, like, I was, I was shocked that people have such a strong reaction to it. I'm curious what your thoughts were.
Athena: I, you know, I just didn't understand it. You know, and I guess because people...this is what I can attest it to. I don't think anyone on TV has seen me wrestle like that. For as long as I've been on TV wrestling with WWE, with NXT I don't really think people have seen that full side of me before. Everyone on the independent scene is like, oh, yeah, she's just doing the old stuff, you know what I mean? But like, I just think people were surprised that I had that in me and it was so weird. Being in Canada, I felt like I was at that In Your House pay per view where you're cheering for all the Canadians. And then I was sitting there like, this is weird. You know, like, but it was a familiar feeling because I used to be the bad guy on the indies. I used to be that person that didn't care and did what I want and I was a hard hitter. You know, I got that nickname American Joshi because of my style at the time, and I just don't think people expected that out of me. Or even thought that I was capable of it. Like for me, it was crazy because like, I think when you're in that moment, I'm trying to think like where my brain was because almost like kind of laughing because I didn't...I was told that it like hey, you might get booed. They really love this girl. And she was absolutely phenomenal. Absolutely amazing too. But like I just didn't ever really expect it. I just kind of laughed at myself but I'm like, Okay, I guess this is happening. And I just kind of ran with it and ran with the blows and kept going and doing what I do, you know? It just kind of gave me a flashback to the indies to be honest with you.
Mike Johnson: So when you see the reaction online, do you go okay, it's time for me to change lanes and follow suit with that sort of old school Athena aggression. Or did it you know, was it suggested to you to follow that route like, like obviously we've seen you take sort of an evolution and how you present yourself in the ring in recent weeks. I'm curious if Canada was sort of the birthing point for that, or if it was the aftermath afterwards, where you were like, alright, well, we're gonna run with this since people are reacting to it and it's never a bad thing to get a reaction in pro wrestling as long as it's not you know, people sitting there with their arms folded.
Athena: Yeah, like, like I remember just kind of seeing this all blow up and I was just like, oh, oh, crap. You know, just like I was like, Well, alright, it'll go away, and then Day 2 happened and I'm like, eh it'll go away tomorrow and then Day 3 happened and I was like I don't think this is going away. And then just seeing like, a lot of the peers that I had comment on it, and like, it was weird because I was perfectly fine. She was perfectly fine after the match. You know, like, it was just really weird because nothing really happened at all. Like it was just we went out there. We had a match. And then we came to the back and like getting home and seeing this massive reaction for everything. It was like, Okay, there's something to this and I remember sitting down with my husband, and he's like, "You know what we do? We're pro wrestlers," you know, and I go "Yeah, you're right, we're pro wrestlers." And so it just became the idea of my husband Mike was like, lean into it. Just lean into it. Don't say anything. Just lean into it, you know? And I'm so happy that Tony trusted that. Trusted that, trusted me to be able to pull that off safely. And continue going with this forward momentum. And that's been the world of a difference is to have that trust and be like, you know what? Yeah, let's, let's do it. Let's lean into it. Let's go and like every week it's gone viral, on some level it's been talked about, and so like, it's just the right decision. I guess for me personally, because I prefer being the bad guy. And I think it's because it's very familiar to me because I did it for 10 years.
Mike Johnson: Obviously before you came to AEW, there was a lot of hurry up and wait and I would say from my vantage point on the outside looking in at what you were doing, so probably some disappointment as well. And obviously, you had bad timing with the Achilles heel injury. But how refreshing is it to kind of go from that to that level of trust that you just talked about that Tony Khan gives you?
Athena: It's weird. It's very weird, very unexpected, you know, because I feel like, how do I say this without saying it poorly? You know, like, I kinda was conditioned to tell stories and ask for an inch, don't ask for a mile and like for me to go and say, Hey, let me do this. I can do this. And to be given that mile, and then inches on top of that, like, it's so relieving to have that trust put in me and know that like, my boss believes that I can do the right job. You know, like it's not saying that they didn't on the other side, if that makes sense. But like Tony having faith and capitalizing on this viral moment, that happened on Dark, they got all the ratings for Dark, and then moving forward and making these baby steps more and more and more and more and finally, it led to me doing the match with Madison on Rampage. Like, that means the world to me and like, it's just like, I'm constantly in that mindset now of like, it's not hurry up and wait. It's like, what can we do next? What's the next big thing we can do? And that's where my brain is. And I know like I have...AEW's been awesome because there's a whole team of people that are like, Alright, what's next? And it's not just me in the kitchen. It's like, all the producers, all the coaches, you know, TK has ideas, you know, and now it's like now it feels like it's something special and it's going to be something special.
Mike Johnson: All of that leads to this Saturday afternoon where you challenge Mercedes Martinez for the Ring of Honor World Women's Championship. Give us some thoughts from your vantage point about what we can expect when we watch the show on pay per view this weekend.
Athena: Honestly, no one knows me better than Mercedes Martinez. I will say that. She's basically the person that made my indy career in Shimmer and catapulted me to being like, kind of a US known talent. Like she's kind of the reason that my career catapulted in that I became that indy darling. You know, so there's, there's no one that knows me better. We wrestled at WWE, we've wrestled on the indies, you know, and it's going to be interesting because for the first time I get to truly be myself and have this match where we're going to beat the tar out of each other. We're going to push each other to our limits because as hard as I hit, I know Mercedes hits just as hard. But like what you're gonna get is a full fledged match between two competitive athletes, beating the tar out of each other for one of the most prestigious prizes in all of wrestling. Like I think people forget like when indy wrestling was promoting the models and trying to do the swimsuit contest and stuff like that. We had Sara Del Rey, Daisy Haze, Miss Chif, Cheerleader Melissa all up here showing what women's wrestling could be and like now fast forward to Ring of Honor Final Battle this week, you have me and Mercedes Martinez, two of the best in the entire world going head to head and we're gonna beat the tar out of each other and elevate and show what real evolution is.
Mike Johnson: What's always interesting to me is what if? What if you made, what if you turn left and zig zag, zig instead of zagging? What do you think women's wrestling would be like today if Dave Prazak and Allison Danger, hadn't put so much time into creating Shimmer and launching that in Illinois at that time period, because it was completely, it was basically the women's answer to what Ring of Honor was in that time period, and there was nothing like it ever in the United States before. What do you think your career and everybody else's career would be like, if that ripple effect of here's Shimmer and everything that comes after it never takes place?
Athena: I don't, I don't know. I mean, like, I feel like eventually there wouldn't have been a place, like maybe we would have been like, what,10 years behind where we are now. You know, maybe just now getting to girls and women having matches that last longer than five minutes or not the popcorn match or I don't know and I don't like to think about that to be honest with you because Shimmer, WSU, Ring of Honor they all did so much for women's wrestling and they gave women a platform to actually go out there and show art so it's hard like and I still talk to Danger almost every single day like she's my wrestling mom, you know? It's crazy to me, like to think what if those companies weren't there? You know, I mean, I definitely wouldn't be anywhere. I'd probably be wrestling in a shack in Marshall, Texas. You know, doing two, three minute matches still probably to this day. I don't, I don't like to think about that. You wouldn't have so many household names like Candice Lerae, Mercedes Martinez, Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter. You wouldn't have any of that. You know, maybe you would, but like I know the amount will be far less than what it is now.
Mike Johnson: Plus, the type of personalities and performers that they were would have been conditioned to probably be different than the pro wrestlers that they are now given the sensibilities of what national wrestling was, you know, up until the point where the Shimmer style as I call it kind of got popularized on a national level. You mentioned a couple of different names, some of whom are in AEW, some of whom were not. Obviously there's a huge bountiful women's locker room in AEW, we just saw Saraya come back, Britt Baker, Toni Storm, you know, Jamie Hayter just descended to the AEW World Women's Championship. Is there anyone you look around in that locker room you go man, when I'm done with Mercedes, that's where I want to go. That's the direction I want, or someone you want to pitch to Tony Khan or someone you want to petition to get in the ring with either because you know it'll be special or even maybe you just haven't had that opportunity yet, like who's the dream opponent? Once you get past the ROH Women's Championship for Athena down the line in AEW?
Athena: I think there's so many talented women, like when I look around the locker room I see every match being a dream match for me because still, even though I've been in AEW for a while, I still haven't had a lot of those dream matches that I think people want to see like Willow Nightingale is one of them, Marina Shafir, Penelope Ford, we have Abadon, we have Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Toni Storm, like we have so many tremendous athletes, Nyla Rose, that any of those matches can be that match. You know what I mean? And I feel like it just takes opportunity and time like but if I'm gonna list top three? Willow Nightingale, Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter, hands down. Those are all people that I know we can go out there to hit the tar out of each other, do something crazy, do something special and just show the world what we can do.
Mike Johnson: It's never a problem to have a stacked locker room when there's that many talented women in one place. Like I know like fans are always like, well, we didn't get this, but it takes time to get to everywhere. Like I always, I always kind of equate it to the Star Wars trilogy. Like if they blow up the Death Star in the first five minutes, you don't get the rest of the adventure. You know what I mean? I feel like sometimes fans kind of need to like just take a deep breath and wait sometimes. Um, one thing that's got to be I would assume cool for you, is that AEW has a lot of tapings in Texas coming up. You know, I know they're in Garland and a couple of other places in the next couple of weeks. You know again, local to you. How excited are you that AEW is back in the Lone Star State given it's been in so many other places in recent months and now they're going to kind of, I don't want to say kind of like have a residency in Texas but there's a lot of Texas focus over the next month or so. You know, thoughts on that and getting the chance to be that close to friends and family in the next couple of weeks as you wrestle on Dynamite and Rampage and Dark and everywhere else.
Athena: Yeah, it's really cool. It's really cool. Like for example, Arlington is where I first started wrestling at a company called PCW and not even 10 minutes down the road is where we're having Final Battle. The next week we're going to Austin, which is my old stomping ground for ACW at the Mohawk and in downtown Austin off Sixth Street, you know, so I haven't wrestled in that area in a really long time. And that's kind of where people saw me develop and grow and turn into who I am now where I got to wrestle people like Miss Chif and be in matches with Sara Del Rey and like all these tremendous people that have had such a massive influence on women's wrestling. Then we go down to San Antonio. You know, which is just the biggest wrestling town ever. I used to wrestle down there as well. I used to do lucha shows and then coming to my hometown of Garland, Texas, which I've never in my entire career wrestled in Garland, Texas. Never. So like, I'm really excited about that prospect. I even got special gear made for the show as well. Hopefully, I will get to show that off and hopefully you know, I get to beat the tar out of someone in the process. So like, it's one of the things that this is a very like, special and important month for me as far as like development, growth and memories.
Mike Johnson: Let me ask you the hardest question of the day before we get out of here. Why should fans order Ring of Honor this weekend and enjoy Final Battle on Saturday afternoon?
Athena: Because I'm gonna beat the tar out of Mercedes Martinez and walk out the ROH Champion. It'll be my first championship with the company. It'll be my first pay per view with that company, even though I've wrestled there for a while before I got signed to WWE, so come get it you're not going to be disappointed. We're going to beat the tar out of each other. I'm going to be victorious as I always am when I wrestle Mercedes and we're going to have a hell of a show. Not to mention Samoa Joe, not to mention Claudio versus Jericho but mostly it's me. It's me and my hometown, so come see me.
Mike Johnson: Alright everybody, don't forget tonight on AEW Dark you can watch Athena spoiler alert - beat the tar out of B3cca. I'm sure that's going to happen. No offense B3cca, I'm sure you're a wonderful person, a great wrestler but I don't think it's gonna go well tonight.
Athena: You can't trust a girl with a three in her name.
Mike Johnson: There you go. There you go. These kids were their emojis, let me tell you. You can check out Athena on Twitter @AthenaPalmer_FG. You can also check her out on Pro Wrestling Tees at Athena FG. You can check out her Twitch at Half Dragon AP and you could watch her throw down with Mercedes Martinez this Saturday afternoon live from the Lone Star State as Ring of Honor presents 2022 Final Battle which will be a very important date in the annals of Ring of Honor history. I will have live coverage as it happens and we look forward to watching the show. And we look forward to seeing what happens in the continued adventures of Athena as she looks to blow up the Death Star and she makes her way through her journey through All Elite Wrestling and beyond. Thank you so much for sitting down talking to us. I had a great time. I hope we get to do it again real soon when the constellations and stars properly align and until then, our best to you and the family and we look forward to seeing what you do this week on AEW and Ring of Honor.
Athena: Awesome. Thanks, Mike.
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