As a long-time fan of Ring of Honor (ROH), I’ve been privileged to witness some truly iconic moments and champions. But none have quite captured my heart like the current Women’s Champion, Athena. For two decades, Samoa Joe held the Ring of Honor World Championship title for an impressive 645 days, a feat that seemed unbeatable. Yet, here we are, with Athena shattering that record and redefining what it means to be a champion.
20 years ago, Samoa Joe claimed the Ring of Honor World Championship, becoming the third-ever titleholder and setting a record by holding it for 645 days. This accomplishment has been an aspirational goal for champions such as Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Tyler Black, Kevin Steen (now known as WWE’s Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens). Now, exactly two decades later, the record has finally been surpassed by the current Women’s Champion Athena. Her journey to this impressive milestone involved victories over wrestlers like Willow Nightingale, Mercedes Martinez, Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, Queen Aminata, Billie Starkz, and numerous others.
A Fighting Champion
As a diehard fan, I’ve been consistently impressed by Athena’s performances since Tony Khan took over Ring of Honor (ROH). Despite her exceptional work in the women’s division, she hasn’t received the recognition she deserves because ROH operates on its own streaming platform and there’s been minimal acknowledgement of her dominance en route to breaking Joe’s record. However, through adversity like injuries, Athena has demonstrated unwavering dedication to elevating both ROH and the women’s division. Unfortunately, she hasn’t received nearly enough credit for her efforts. She’s been a regular at every television taping and pay-per-view event, with dreams of taking ROH global by defending the championship overseas.
To those unfamiliar with ROH, they didn’t introduce a genuine women’s championship until 2018. Instead of seeming prestigious, it felt more like an effort to appear progressive in an era where wrestling was finally valuing women and acknowledging their worth. Unfortunately, the title failed to live up to expectations and was discontinued only two years after its creation. Fast-forward to 2021, ROH established a new title, The Women’s World Championship, with Rok-C (WWE’s Roxanne Perez) as the first holder. This strategic move was wise, as having a youthful and vibrant champion carrying the title helped to gradually erase the shadows of the past.
Deonna Purrazzo and Martinez, who are well-established in professional wrestling, played a significant role in elevating its status and making it matter. However, Athena has taken those foundational building blocks and carved out a unique path for herself, paving the way for women’s wrestling and the division she carries on her shoulders. If not for Athena’s powerful rule, there would have been no announcement of a second women’s championship – the World Television Championship.
It’s true that there are justifiable concerns about the frequency of her appearances compared to other Ring of Honor (ROH) Champions who have been on AEW TV. Since she won the title in December 2022, she has only shown up on television a couple of times and on pay-per-view sparingly. For instance, if we look at Claudio Castagnoli’s second ROH World Championship reign, he made nearly four and a half times more appearances than Athena did during his six-month reign as champion.
Although some online commentators may claim that Athena is being underutilized in ROH, it seems quite the contrary as she has transformed basic elements into breathtaking magic. Here’s to numerous future years of Athena and her followers dominating the professional wrestling scene.
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2024-09-15 22:40