Athena Shares Her Aspirations for ROH Women’s World Championship

If you’ve been tuned into wrestling at all in 2023, you’re probably keenly aware of Athena’s dominating run as the ROH Women’s World Championship. She’s held the title for an entire year after winning it at last year’s Final Battle against Mercedes Martinez.

Athena will defend the title in the main event of this year’s Final Battle pay-per-view against up and coming wrestling star Billie Starkz. By the time that match takes place on December 15 in Athena’s home state of Texas, if she can defeat Starkz, she will have held the title for a record-breaking 370 days. There’s still so much Athena wants to accomplish while holding the title, including taking the belt overseas to defend it. Athena has taken the belt all across the independent wrestling scene, including in a match against Tokyo Joshi-Pro Wrestling’s Miyu Yamashita.

“I’ve done it before with Miyu Yamashita on the indie scene. Because of the filming schedule, it’s not quite possible without Tony’s [Tony Khan] approval. I would love to go to Japan. I would love to take the Ring of Honor Championship to Japan and defend it there, particularly for New Japan or Stardom. I have always wanted to wrestle over there, especially for those two companies in particular,” Athena said in an interview with the Battleground Podcast. “When I was first on the Indies, New Japan did not have women’s wrestling so it’s even more of a ‘I need it.’ Those are dreams I have. I want to go to the UK. The UK scene has changed immensely since I was on the independent scene.”

In taking the belt overseas, Athena would love to take the championship on a world tour to bring Ring of Honor to a global audience. “I would love to go back to Australia. I would love to take the Ring of Honor Championship on a world tour, I really would. Now, I’m more focused on trying to see what’s next for me because I don’t know. I would love to promote Ring of Honor on a world level. We get to go to Canada. My dream right now is to go to Japan. That is a dream, that is a style that I have emulated more than anything else and I know those women hit so hard and they are so phenomenal and they train beast mode 24/7 and that’s something I have always wanted to be immersed in.”

Athena is set to main event her second pay-per-view as ROH Women’s World Champion and she will do so with a broken nose. In a since deleted post on Twitter, Athena revealed she suffered the injury at the December 5 ROH tapings in Montreal, Quebec, Canada when Starkz attacked her post-match.