When Athena made her way to AEW in May of 2022, it felt like a major get for a division lacking in strong, believable babyfaces capable of putting in big-time bouts against established heels like Britt Baker and Jade Cargill. On paper, Athena brought a lot to the table; she was incredibly seasoned due to her time on the indies and in NXT/WWE as Ember Moon, had a compelling presentation that made her feel like an established star even among fans who weren't familiar with her, and had fantastic in-ring efforts to boot. If ever there was a performer to take the strap off of Cargill, the woman she was brought in to wrestle, it would be the pride of Dallas, Texas.

And yet, that match came and went, and unfortunately for Athena, she became just another notch in Cargill's win column.

From there, Athena kept up her babyface ways, but then, on a seemingly insignificant edition of AEW Dark Elevation, something strange happened: Athena worked a stiff match with Ontario fan favorite Jody Threat that got fans talking, and before too long, fans were debating online or whether or not the “Fallen Goddess” took things too far.

Had Athena taken these criticisms to heart and eased up her touch ever so slightly, maybe this wouldn't still be a story nearly two months later, but, in a decidedly different choice that proved genius in hindsight, she took things in a different direction; deciding to embrace being a stiff worker and suddenly, a heel tour de force was born. Suddenly, Athena started punching out opposing wrestlers instead of working them in the ring, and even referee Aubrey Edwards wasn't free from her violence, as she ate a fist to the face that led to a suspension for the “Fallen Goddess.”

Athena's brutality captivated fans, angered others, and ultimately led to a match for the ROH Women's World Championship at Ring of Honor Final Battle against reigning champion Mercedes Martinez, who hasn't defended the strap since Death Before Dishonor in July. Is Athena worried about fans turning on her or disapproving of her hard-hitting efforts? Based on her comments on Busted Open Radio, it doesn't sound like she particularly cares.

All Athena cares about is bringing Ring of Honor gold back to AEW.

Speaking with David LaGreca and company on Busted Open Radio, Athena was asked why she changed up her AEW in-ring style and gave a very succinct answer, as transcribed by Fightful.

“Cause I feel like it,” Athena said. “Sometimes, nice guys finish last. Sometimes, you get frustrated and it's hard because you're trying to find an opportunity to not get lost in the shuffle because at AEW, there are so many talented women just across the board and it's like, what can you do to stand out? You're asking questions like, why am I stuck in this position? Why is this happening to me? Am I not good? Finally, you have to just say ‘eff it.' That's basically what I've done. I'm going to do what I do best. For ten years, before I signed to WWE, I was probably one of the most notorious heels, I worked my entire Indie career as the bad guy. I event got the nickname ‘The American Joshi' because of my hard-hitting style. People forget about that. Through my entire TV career, it's something I always wanted to get back to.”

“The girls can hit just as hard as the guys. I have to sit there and see Jon Moxley and (Chris) Jericho and (Wheeler) Yuta, all of these guys hit the tar out of each other. I guarantee you, if I was a man, there wouldn't be as much backlash or anything about that. It's all these old bloated farts that want to sit there and tell us we need to look pretty. They complain when it's a dance, they complain when we hit hard. Get over it. We're out here to be just as good as the guys. We give it our all and put in all this time and effort to hone our craft and I feel we're under-appreciated when we do things like that.”

Asked by the hosts why she thinks fans are more critical when female wrestlers hit hard than their male counterparts, Athena pondered the question before providing her answer.

“I honestly don't know,” Athena said. “I've been doing this for almost 17 years and no matter how much we as women train or if we have the best match on the card, it's always going to have that stigma of ‘they hit too hard, it's too dancey.' People are always critical of the girls because we're still trying to fight for so much. Every time we step into the ring, we're still trying to prove that we belong here, that we're just as good as the guys, if not better. I don't know if anyone else caught Full Gear, but Toni Storm and Jamie Hayter tore down the floor. So what, there was blood. Someone got hit in the face, oh well, it's wrestling. We're not babies. We're not going to go home and cry about it. We're going to continue the match and do what we do best, which is entertain people. Just because one person hits hard, one person is a high-flier, one person likes to do submissions; It's all entertainment at the end of the day. That's all we want to show you. We want to put our heart and art on the platter in the ring and be appreciated for every bump we take, every death-defying move, every time we get hit by a chair, go into a cage, come off the top with a stunner, we want to show you guys our heart and art every time we step into the ring and for some reason, it's so overly criticized and I don't know why, I don't have an answer for that. Every step we take forward, it takes one comment on the internet, to set the entire women's wrestling category back.”

Athena's comments are pretty hard to argue with; it seems like women's wrestling is held to a different standard, and no matter how a promotion opts to present it, folks will find a reason to complain about it. Like it or not, Athena has found a definitive, distinct style that is working wonders for her in AEW, and for better or worse, it seems like she's going to lean into that now more than ever.