AEW superstar and current Ring of Honor women’s champion Athena recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho for a discussion about all things pro-wrestling, which included the Fallen Goddess discussing her release from WWE, how IMPACT made her an offer to join their company, and how her family never understood her dream of being a wrestler. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says her parents didn’t really support her early dreams of being a wrestler:
My parents didn’t really support the wrestling career until I got to WWE. 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.
Says that IMPACT hit her up with offers but she really wanted to go to AEW:
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. 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.
(H/T and transcribed by F4Wonline
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