July 21 marked a historic moment for the women of Ring Of Honor.
At ROH Death Before Dishonor, ROH Women’s Champion Athena put her title on the line against Willow Nightingale. This wasn’t an ordinary title match though. Athena and Nightingale were penciled in for the main event. This made them the first women to ever headline an ROH pay-per-view. The two battled for over 20 minutes before Nightingale passed out to the crossface. As a result, Athena officially retained her ROH Women’s Championship.
During the ROH Death Before Dishonor post-show media scrum, Athena was asked if the main event position put a bigger chip on her shoulder. While the elevated stakes definitely made her emotional, Athena admitted that she’d need some time to process her accomplishment first.
“I haven’t really processed that yet,” she said. “There were several moments where I came backstage and I just wanted to cry. I was so happy because for the first time in my career, I did have that main event. I was extremely emotional because the pressure was on, not just for me, but for the division,’ Athena explained. ‘For the AEW’s women’s division to show that women’s wrestling matters. Me and Willow, we went out there and proved that tonight.
Chip On Her Shoulder
Athena said that main eventing and making history certainly puts a chip on her shoulder, but it was one that was already there.
“There was already a chip there, let’s be honest. But it’s humbling to think that you can go out there and still entertain the fans after all the amazing athletes on Ring of Honor across the board,” she explained. “To sit there and still be able to get the crowd invested, still be able to get everyone behind what we’re doing, and just be able to entertain people.
“So have I processed it yet? I’ll probably go to my hotel tonight and have a nice, good happy cry about it. But I’m just mentally happy at the work that we put in. I said it before, we’re living up to a legacy that was upheld before we got here while creating our own. Not only that, we’re creating the standard for women to come, whether they be in AEW or in Ring of Honor. We’re setting that bar and just showing the world what we can do.”
The full video is available here:
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