These Brilliant AEW Success Stories Should Have SUCKED
9. Athena
By the letter of the law (or more specifically, the letters of the promotion), this entry should perhaps be picked back up whenever the current Ring Of Honor World Champion makes her return to All Elite Wrestling. But Athena deserves credit for doing what hardly anybody else exclusive to that show has managed to since the show settled into its niche spot on Honor Club in March 2023 - she's forced herself back into the conversation.
Having hit a ceiling as a babyface in AEW all-too-quickly following her Double Or Nothing 2022 debut, the heel-turned star became a revolution on ROH. She won the top strap almost immediately and embarked on a tour of violence and menace that has recently morphed into a doomed and comedically cruel master/gutsy apprentice relationship with Billie Starkz.
That story seems destined to end with "minion" Starkz breaking Athena's tyrannical reign, allowing the former Ember Moon a seamless return to Dynamite and Collision as a reborn and refocussed nightmare for whoever's holding company gold.