Athena still feels pressure heading into her second straight Ring Of Honor pay-per-view main event.
At Ring Of Honor Death Before Dishonor, Athena would main event the show in a Ring Of Honor Women's World Title bout with Willow Nightingale, successfully retaining the championship. This would be the first women's match to main event a Ring Of Honor pay-per-view.
Now, Athena is set to main event once again at tonight's Ring Of Honor Final Battle pay-per-view, once again defending her championship against her former protogé, Billie Starkz. While speaking to WrestlePurists in a recent interview, Athena would be asked about how it feels to main event once again. The champion would be honest, noting that the pressure is still on but that she is confident that she will deliver once again.
"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 home town, 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?"
Athena would continue, noting how personal it is for her to be the face of the Ring Of Honor brand and how she wants to make it a brand where people can come to discover who they want to be.
"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. 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 its 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."
Athena recently commented on possibly making her way back to AEW television. You can read more about those comments here.
Tony Khan also recently commented on a return to AEW programming for Athena. You can read said comments here.
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