Athena saw All Elite Wrestling as an interesting opportunity long before she participated in the tournament at Double or Nothing. Athena told Complex that her interest had been there already, but there were sparks of desire to pursue a career in AEW when she competed in the tournament.
“When you look at the AEW PPVs and you’re seeing all of my friends that I used to roll with on the indies and they’re finally getting the platform that they deserve and it’s just like, ‘Man, they look like they’re having so much fun and I gotta be a part of it,’ you know?” Athena said. “And it just kept setting in. It’s like the more time that went on there the more I was just looking at AEW, the more I was like longing to be at AEW.”
Athena watched the AEW product and was exposed to its TBS Women’s Champion, which put some added motivation behind her decision to switch careers.
“Then Jade Cargill came on my radar with that ‘Storm’ cosplay she did and I was like ‘Oh my God, this girl is fire!’ That’s the first moment where I was like, ‘Oh, there’s something here, oh, there’s something special here.’ And I remember then she came out with the “Jade [from] Mortal Kombat” cosplay and I was like, ‘Damn! She got that.’ And it seemed from day one where the company started all the way to now and seeing how much love and passion that goes into every match, that goes into every talent that sets foot and you can see it on their face and it made me long for that again.”
Her first feud in AEW ended up being against Cargill. On Wednesday, an interview with Cargill stated that Athena would be facing one of her evil enemies, Red Velvet, on Friday on “AEW Rampage.”
