9 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Collision (July 8)

5. Allowing Athena To Showcase Her Personality

AEW Collision Athena Willow Nightingale
AEW

While the numbers watching Ring of Honor on a weekly basis are unfortunately minimal, one of the constant shining lights of ROH TV right now is Athena.

As the ROH Women's Champion, Athena has a pep in her step, a brilliant edge, and is fully in her stride in a way rarely seen before from the one-time Ember Moon. This is a performer who is fully comfortable in her skin and who is grasping the opportunities finally being afforded to her.

So, while it was disappointing to hear that this vicious, clinical Athena's bout with ever-loveable babyface Willow Nightingale had to be postponed to next week due to an injury to Willow, this week's Collision at least gave non-ROH viewers a sneak peak at what Athena is all about right now.

The backstage promo between Athena and Nightingale served as a nice tease to what should be an excellent match between the pair, and giving Athena a chance to showcase her current persona was a smart move.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.