Athena Makes History as Ring of Honor Champion: The Fighting Spirit Women's Wrestling Deserves

Athena has surpassed Samoa Joe's ROH Championship record of 645 days.

By Haley Miller

Two decades ago Samoa Joe became the third-ever Ring of Honor World Champion, a title that he would hold for a record-setting 645 days -- a feat that Champions like Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Tyler Black and Kevin Steen (WWE's Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens) have tried to chase. Exactly 20 years later, that record has been broken by the current Women's Champion Athena. Her road to the milestone has seen her defeat the likes of Willow Nightingale, Mercedes Martinez, Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, Queen Aminata, Billie Starkz and so many more.

A Fighting Champion

Since AEW President Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor, Athena has been a consistent bright spot on the brand. However her efforts in the women's division have gone largely unrecognized because ROH is on its own streaming platform separate to AEW and there has been little acknowledgment of her dominance on the road to besting Joe's record. Nevertheless, through injuries and perseverance, she has dedicated the last two years to uplifting both ROH and the women's division, something she hasn't gotten nearly enough credit for. She has shown up for every television taping and every pay-per-view with aspirations of taking ROH global by defending the championship overseas.

For the uninitiated, ROH didn't have a "real" women's title until 2018. Instead of feeling prestigious, it came off more as a way to appear progressive in a wrestling climate that was finally championing women and giving them the respect they deserve. All of this to say the title didn't work and became defunct just two years after it was created. In 2021 a new title -- The Women's World Championship -- was founded and the up and coming Rok-C (WWE's Roxanne Perez) became the inaugural champion. The move was smart on ROH's part, having a young and fresh face carrying around a title certainly helped to begin washing away the stains of the past. 

Deonna Purrazzo and Martinez, veterans in the professional wrestling world, helped to build that prestige and make it mean something. But Athena has taken those stepping stones and really forged a path that's all her own while making way for the future of women's wrestling and the division that's on her shoulders. Without Athena's dominating reign, a second women's championship -- the World Television Championship -- would have never been announced. 

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There are certainly valid criticisms about her usage compared to other ROH Champions who have all appeared on AEW television. Since winning the title in December of 2022, she has only appeared on television twice and on pay-per-view a handful of times. For example, comparing this to Claudio Castagnoli's second ROH World Championship reign, his appearances were nearly four and a half times greater than Athena's and he was champion for six months. 

The internet can say that she's being wasted away in ROH (the ones saying this likely aren't watching it anyway), but how can that be true when she's taken bare bones and made complete and utter magic? Here's to many more years of Athena and her minions ruling the professional wrestling world. 

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