AEW's Athena: "If I Was A Man, There Wouldn't Be Backlash To Me Hitting Hard"

Athena has ripped into critics of her new, hard-hitting style in AEW, stating that if she were a man, she wouldn't be receiving the same level of backlash.

The former TBS Title contender has been refining this style for several weeks now. A 12 October match with Jody Threat taped for Dark drew widespread attention for its stiff shots and hard bumps, though the complaints were mostly made in bad faith. Threat, at one point, smiled at Athena, seemingly mouthing "I love it." The bout was no shoot.

Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Athena referenced Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, and Wheeler Yuta as AEW males who don't exactly hold back in the ring (h/t Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online):-

"People forget that the girls can hit just as hard as the guys. I have to sit there and see Jon Moxley and (Chris) Jericho and (Wheeler) Yuta and all these guys hit the tar out of each other. I guarantee you if I was a man, I feel like there wouldn’t be as much backlash or anything like that."

Then, Athena let rip on the "bloated old farts" criticising her from afar, pointing out the time and effort that people in her position put into their craft:-

"It’s all these old, bloated farts that wanna sit there and tell us, 'Oh no, we need to go out there and look pretty' and then they complain when it’s a dance. They complain when we hit hard. Get over it. We’re out here to be just as good as the guys and we give it our all. We put in all of this time and effort to hone our craft and I feel like sometimes, we are underappreciated when we do things like that."

Athena's stiff in-ring form has continued since the Threat match. On the 18 November Rampage, 'The Fallen Goddess' turned full-on heel, shockingly blasting referee Aubrey Edwards with a forearm after a straightforward victory over Madison Rayne. This moment resonated not only for Athena's excellent, villainous performance, but because of AEW's protection of its referees when it comes to taking bumps.

Continuing, Athena stated that her ongoing evolution is a product of not wanting to get lost in the AEW shuffle:-

"You start second guessing yourself and then finally, you just have to say ‘F it’ and that’s basically what I’ve done is just say ‘F it’ and I’m gonna do what I do best."

Athena's next big match is a shot at Mercedes Martinez's ROH Women's World Championship at Final Battle 2022 this Saturday (10 December).