Athena on Talk is Jericho; talks struggles early in career, early WWE tryout, interest from Impact, more

[Chris]

Athena has opened up about the challenges she faced early in her career including having to lose weight for a WWE tryout.

The ROH Women's Champion appeared on an episode of Talk is Jericho released Wednesday. During the discussion, Athena mentioned that her parents weren't supportive of her career choice until she was signed by WWE. She was kicked out after dropping out of college to attend a tryout with the company.

"My parents didn't really support the wrestling career until I got to WWE," she said.

"My parents have always been supportive but I think they were hard on me because they wanted me to succeed and they were like school is the way to do that."

"They are both extremely successful in their professions and when I'm like, 'I want to be a pro wrestler' and they go to the first show in Marshall, Texas, 20 people in the crowd and they're like, 'what is this going to pay for?' So, I get it, you know, I ended up getting kicked out and I learned to survive on my own."

The catalyst for her parents kicking her out was when she dropped out of college to attend her first WWE tryout around 2008.

"I dropped out of college because I had a WWE tryout, I think it was like the first one at FCW, and I used my tuition money to pay for the way to get there."

She continued to say that she was given a pamphlet after the tryout that said she "didn't have the Diva look" and should work on that.

"I remember getting this form that said 'doesn't have the Diva look, work on that.' They had this whole pamphlet on what you did well, what you didn't do well, what you need to work on."

"Main critique was 'doesn't have Diva look' and then it had some suggestions like maybe get hair extensions, maybe get new gear, maybe get this."

Athena continued to say that she met Natalya through the tryout. At that time, Natalya had already been signed by WWE and reached out to Athena to help her get new gear and teach her how to work within a budget to develop her look.

"She's just a genuinely good person. They say don't meet your heroes but that meant the world to me at the time because she was the first person that I kind of idolized for being different and she was willing to help me when she didn't have to."

Several months passed and Athena was invited back for a private tryout. However, she was told by WWE that she needed to lose weight.

"I remember just being told 'I just don't know if we should sign you or tell you to lose some more weight.' That was kind of what it came down to and I was like, 'I can lose the weight, just sign me.'"

She was then told to call WWE back once she had lost more weight.

"So, I lose the weight. I'm like, 'yes, alright we got this, we hit that number' but it was not in a healthy way because I wanted it so bad. I had a cup of strawberries in the morning, I would run three miles, and then I would have a cup of strawberries at night. That was kind of the only thing I was ingesting."

WWE decided to pass on Athena again regardless of her weight loss, however.

Athena would eventually sign with WWE in 2015. She debuted on the main roster in 2018 but returned to NXT in 2020. Athena would continue to say that things changed for her during the time Paul "Triple H" Levesque was away from the company and the emphasis was once again on how female wrestlers looked.

"Then it became Vince's team," she said about NXT at the time. "The team that I had worked with on Raw and SmackDown, that like no ideas get passed them. It started being how good people look outside of the ring and not based off what they can do in the ring."

Athena continued to talk about not being happy in NXT at the time and then getting the call that she was released on November 4, 2021. She wouldn't debut in AEW until the following May.

"When I left WWE, that was the one thing I wanted to do, I wanted to try and figure out a way to get to AEW," Athena said.

She continued to say that her team had some initial discussions with AEW that December to see if there was interest. Athena was under a 90-day no-compete window with WWE, however. When she was free, she received several offers from independent promotions as well as Impact Wrestling.

"Impact wanted me, and then there was interest in AEW but we could never get a hold of Tony [Khan] because Tony is so freakin busy all the time. Then Impact would be like, 'hey girl, hey!' And I'm like, 'yeah yeah, I know, hold on!'"

"I have two companies that are showing interest and it was just like, 'man, I think I just want to go to AEW, I think I do.' I have friends in Impact but I really think I want to do AEW because I've had my eye on it for so long."

Athena then debuted for AEW at Double or Nothing on May 29, 2022.

AEW’s Athena details losing weight in an unhealthy way to get signed by WWE

The ROH Women's Champion appeared on Talk is Jericho recently.

www.f4wonline.com

 

[Cult03]

Athena is the Ricochet of women's wrestling. Is fine in the ring and somewhat athletic but can't embrace a gimmick, can't cut a promo and fails to tell a story within the ring. Just kind of does moves for the sake of it. There's a million female wrestlers that can do what she does though.

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Could not disagree more and I'm going to doubt you've watched any of her recent work because a lot of what you said outside limited to average promo skills is objectively false based on even just the last month.

 

[Cult03]

Could not disagree more and I'm going to doubt you've watched any of her recent work because a lot of what you said outside limited to average promo skills is objectively false based on even just the last month.

I've seen it all and it's just not very good. Her finisher is awesome, but everything else is filler. Oh except her stiff stuff that doesn't look safe at all. Not sure what the go was with that but it was messy as hell.

 

[Chris]

Stiff Athena one of the best acts going in wrestling rn easily

 

[Canadian Dragon]

I've seen it all and it's just not very good. Her finisher is awesome, but everything else is filler. Oh except her stiff stuff that doesn't look safe at all. Not sure what the go was with that but it was messy as hell.

Lol sure

 

[Canadian Dragon]

No character - wrong
No storytelling - wrong
Just does move - wrong

Just say she's not your jam instead of inventing reasons to justify ur dislikes

 

[Sky]

Athena is the Ricochet of women's wrestling. Is fine in the ring and somewhat athletic but can't embrace a gimmick, can't cut a promo and fails to tell a story within the ring. Just kind of does moves for the sake of it. There's a million female wrestlers that can do what she does though.

Who's your favourite woman wrestler, for the record

 

[Chris]

Who's your favourite woman wrestler, for the record

Now if he says Charlotte which I feel could be likely, I don't wanna hear any slander

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Probably a wwe wrestler

 

[Cult03]

Who's your favourite woman wrestler, for the record

Giulia, followed by Jamie Hayter, Raychell Rose, Thekla, Rhea Ripley, Promise Braxton, Alba Fyre and Madison Eagles.

Boy, you guys really painted me into a corner.

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Assuming some of those gotta be aussie indies?

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Gotta say that since you like joshi ur athena take is even more puzzling. Unless u just like the donnas for homer reasons ig

 

[Cult03]

Assuming some of those gotta be aussie indies?

Nope, wrestling exists outside of WWE, mate

Only Eagles is an Aussie Indie wrestler. The rest are Texas locals, wrestling in Japan, in WWE (Uh oh) or AEW.

I think because I like Joshi wrestling my opinion on Athena is skewed because I know what it's supposed to look like.

 

[Canadian Dragon]

I know who Alba Fyre is...obviously was referring to the names 99.99% of even the most hardcore wrestling fan would not know lol.