After nearly a year of anticipation, Athena and Billy Starkz will finally take the ring against each other as foes with the Ring of Honor Woman's Championship on the line at Final Battle, a show going up against SmackDown and Rampage exclusively on Honor Club.
Will the hardest-hitting performer in professional wrestling keep her title run alive in her hometown of Garland, Texas, proving that WWE made a massive mistake two years ago when they released her from her NXT contract? Or will Starkz prove that the student has become the master and make herself the new face of ROH as the “Fallen Goddess” moves to bigger and brighter things in AEW?
Well, while it may be in Athena's best interest to lose her strap back home in Texas, in a pre-Final Battle interview with Wrestle Purist, the current ROH Woman's Champion let it be known that she isn't looking to just roll over and drop her strap. No, in a show called Final Battle, Athena is looking to fight and prove that the woman who leaves the show on top really is the best in the world.
“I think it's a little bit of both because as much as I'm like, ‘Oh no, I'm not worried about being the main event', the main event needs to deliver. We are the headliners of the show. The pressure is on to not just deliver once but to deliver even better than the first time. So it's a weird kind of feeling, especially with it being in my hometown, the place where I was born and raised, where I left very quickly. So the pressure's on, but I'm confident that I can deliver and beat the tar out of Billie Starkz, and that's all that really matters, right? Yeah, I mean, when I think about Ring Of Honor and how hard I worked there when I was on the independent scene to get there, it means a lot, it's very personal. I want to make Ring Of Honor the place where people see it as a proving ground, it's a place where you come to discover yourself and discover who you want to be, whether being in AEW or the independent circuit,” Athena told Wrestle Purist via 411 Mania.
“I feel like, on some level, I do take so much pride in being the face of Ring Of Honor. I take pride in everything I do, from the moment I set foot in the ring to the moment when I'm cutting a promo backstage with my bestie, Lexy. Everything has to be perfect. That's just the way I am. It doesn't matter if it's on Ring Of Honor, AEW, or the independent circuit. I go balls to the wall. I try to do everything in my power to make sure by the end of the day, you're like, ‘Wow, what did Athena do? Did you see Athena, Athena's great, Athena's this,' and of course, that's going to shine through because I am just overly confident in my abilities to perform to entertain, and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.”
While AEW fans haven't gotten to see Athena nearly as much as they would have liked, as she hasn't wrestled for the promotion since January, the ROH Woman's Champion has been on an absolute run since defeating Mercedes Martinez at last year's Final Battle and should be able to parlay that to huge things on Dynamite and Collision when she gets the proverbial call up.
Athena is ready to see if Billie Starkz can sink or swim in ROH.
Elsewhere in her interview with Wrestle Purist, Athena reflected on her time working with Billie Starkz and on how much the 18-year-old wrestling protege has grown under her tutelage in Ring of Honor.
While the duo clearly aren't on the same page at the moment, as they are wrestling for a reason at Final Battle, Athena is still proud of the performer she's made her former Minion into.
“I think it just kind of happened to be honest with you. Billie was this young upstart kid that had options on where she could go, and she chose to come to us seeing her at Forbidden Door, seeing her get stepped on in the locker room, seeing her just trying to survive, it seemed like she was someone that I needed to take under my wing,” Athena said via Fightful. “She needed my help, she needed my guidance, whether she wanted it or not, and just showing that she had this unique personality, this unique move set if you will, and she was just limiting herself so much that I was just like, ‘you know what no you're mine now I'm going to show you how this works because if you continue down this path, you're going to be no one,' and that's kind of how this all started. Behind the scenes, ‘I was like, you need me, I don't need you, you need me.' I need to show you how this works. Because she had the ability, she had the skill set to be someone special. Well, that was until she turned on me, that is.”
Asked about her familiarity with Billie Starkz before she became a “Minion in Training,” Athena noted that she wasn't, at least until she wrestled a match against Britt Baker in Orlando. Once Athena became familiar with the 18-year-old prodigy, she knew they needed to work together, as she knew the company could really use “Space Jesus'” services.
“I wasn't really familiar with Billie Starkz before she came and did this match with Britt Baker, I think it was an Orlando taping we had. Everyone was just like wow, Billie Starkz and Britt Baker killed it,” Athena noted. “I was like who is Billie Starkz? Is she Tony Stark's daughter or something? Like, what is it? I don't understand what's happening, you know? So I went, and I looked her up, and I saw she's 18, She's been wrestling since she was 14, okay wow, and then like that's kind of how Billie Starkz got on my radar. Then I started deep diving into her Tokyo Joshi Pro stuff, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is this is someone really cool, this is an asset that we can have for the company,' and I'm really glad that she decided to come and join us here. Billie Starkz is one of those people that kind of skated under the radar till like she finally just appeared and it seems like now she's everywhere.”
Will Athena and Starkz adhere to the code of honor when their match at Final Battle comes to an end? Or has their feud become too personal for the former friends to ever be friends again? Fans will have to tune into Final Battle to find out.
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