Athena reflects on how her partnership with Billie Starkz came about.
Since March of 2023, Athena has been a pivotal part of Ring Of Honor programming as the Ring Of Honor Women's World Champion. During this time, she has found herself mentoring not just backstage interviewer Lexy Nair, but also Billie Starkz. After a long term of abuse from the champion, Starkz would eventually snap on the November 30th edition of Ring Of Honor on HonorClub, attacking Athena. Tonight, Starkz will challenge the 'forever champion' for the title in the main event of Final Battle.
While speaking to WrestlePurists ahead of the bout with her former ally, the champion was asked how the partnership with Starkz came about. Athena would note that it "just kind of happened".
"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 and 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. 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."
Athena was then asked when she became aware of the hype surrounding Billie, noting that she took notice of the young star back in December of last year.
"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. 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."
Elsewhere in the same interview, Athena would discuss main eventing her second straight Ring Of Honor pay-per-view. You can read more here.
Athena stated earlier this week that she will teach Starkz a lession at Final Battle. You can read more here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
