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| Standing Tall! |
Athena, The Wrestling Goddess, has done so much and has so many fans, it will be sad to to see her go but she is moving up to bigger and better things! I have been a fan of hers almost since I first watched her battle. For Shana aka @Literarygrrrl she was more than just a fan, she got in to all of INDIE wrestling in a huge part thanks to Athena.
I am going to start with a history lesson, to see where I am coming from. Hope I don't bore you.
She has wrestled for all sorts of companies, from Anarchy Championship Wrestling(ACW), Absolute Intense Wrestling(AIW), XCW, Booker T/PWA, St. Louis Anarchy(STL), Shimmer, PCW, Ring of Honor(ROH) Inspire Pro Wrestling, and many others. I will discuss some of her opponents and matches in a bit, first I want to talk about where and when I first saw her and where I mostly saw her wrestle. This would be in Anarchy Championship Wrestling where she made her debut in 2008 at From Innocence to Insanity where she battled Rachel Summerlyn and even got the win. All shows I mention from here on out will be ACW unless I say otherwise.
The first time I saw her in the ring is Delusions of our Childish Days on December 20th, 2009, and one of my earliest shows. She was teamed up with Erin Starr taking on Rachel Summerlyn and Jessica James who got the win. It was an impressive fight, but there was quite a break between her debut and this show, not sure what happened but I was glad she returned. By February 21st, 2010 at Please Allow Us to Re-Introduce Ourselves at Hooligans in Live Oak, Texas she got her first title shot at the Joshi title vs Rachel Summerlyn. She didn't win but she had a shot soon after being added to the roster, pretty impressive.
Peace, Love, and Anarchy 2010, she fully became part of the faction called The Submission Squad. A group which consisted of several wrestlers, mostly if not all from the St. Louis area, she teams up with them at the same show by supporting Evan G. and Pierre A. as they won and retain the Tag Titles. Then she went on to be part of a battle royale for the 1st Anarchy TV title champ at Nothing is a Real as A Dream in May of 2010. We got a rather unique match with Athena at The Realization of Mortality where two matches were going on at the same time, Athena was fighting Lillie Mae while at the same time Davey Vega is fighting Rachel Summerlyn all at the same time in the same ring. You could hit and fight whoever you wanted but only Lillie could pin Athena or vice versa. Same with Vega and Summerlyn.
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| ATHENA AS ACH! |
The big one came in June of 2010 where she enters the American Joshi Queen of Queens where in the FIRST round she got to fight MsChif, she didn't win but it was an AMAZING fight and a hell of a battle. Jump to September, 2010 and Evolution of the Revolution where in an unscheduled match, Athena gets a shot at the Joshi title against champion Portia Perez, sadly she did not win but I think between this and her match against MsChif she had put all the other Joshi's on notice.
This lead to her getting another shot at Beyond Good and Evil in October taking on 3 other Joshi's for a shot at the title. Portia Perez was still champ and gunning for the belt was Athena, Amanda Fox, and Jen Alise. Quite the match up but Portia managed to retain the title. To close out an awesome 2010, at Delusions of our Childish Days the JOSHI's were the main event and it was a 6 Joshi Elimination tag match with Athena, Portia Perez, and Amanda Fox on one side and Rachel Summerlyn, Jessica James, and Serena Deeb on the other with Portia Perez being the last Joshi standing meaning Athena's team won.
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| Even a Goddess can not lift Thor's Hammer |
Then we really kick it into a whole new level. We hit Guilty by Association 5 in 2011, we got the match that I think changed things and I believe others would agree, the 10,000 thumbtack match against the AMAZING Rachel Summerlyn and MAN O MAN was this brutal. It MADE Athena step up her game and I think it surprised and raised the bar for Rachel as well, which is what a great match and a perfect opponent in that match should do, both parties should come out better or different than when they went in and in a shock for the fans I think Athena got the win, NOT a bad shock just shocked. Rachel didn't lose all that often and Athena was almost still a newcomer, at least compared to Rachel.
Fly with us to O'Fallon, IL in March of 2011 in what would be the official/Unofficial start of St. Louis Anarchy and Athena was there, taking on Lady Poison in a title shot. Lady Poison left still the champ but their feud had JUST begun. At The Chain Reaction of Evil we saw the start of JT LaMotta's feud against all the Joshi's and he started by battling Athena. May 15, 2011 and it is Prom Night, Nothing is as Real as a Dream and the Joshi's have decided to prove that the Indies DO IT BETTER and have an evening gown match! It was a 6 Joshi elimination evening gown match with Athena, Amanda Fox, Sara Del Rey vs Jessica James, Portia Perez, and Rachel Summerlyn. Then Athena made it to the FINALS of the 2011 Queen of Queens tournement beating Amanda Fox and Angel Blue. She faced Rachel Summerlyn in the finals but came up short.
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| I AM THE CHAMPION MY FRIENDS |
Then in August at Distrust, Dismay, and Anti-Social Behavior she was in a huge Battle Royal to get a chance at the ACW Heavyweight Title! But she FINALLY won her first title, The ACW Joshi Title, at Evolution of the Revolution 5 on September 18, 2011 Athena beat Lady Poison to win the title! Her first title defense was at Beyond Good and Evil in October facing Barbi Hayden, Portia Perez, and Lillie Mae but she retained the title. Then at Delusions of our Childish Days 2011, to close out that year we got the Ladder Match for the Joshi Title with Portia Perez, Rachel Summerlyn w/Machiko, Jessica James, Angel Blue, and Lillie Mae, a brutal match!
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| First round QofQ |
In 2012, Athena won the Queen of Queens
After all those achievements she had one more debut to make in Austin, Texas with the newly formed Inspire Pro Wrestling and what a debut. It was at In Their Blood on 5/25/2014 where she fought Veda Scott to advance to the finals of the XX Division Championship to crown the first ever XX Belt holder. She won but somehow Veda would end up with the belt anyway...figure that out.
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| Often copied, never duplicated |
But enough history, Athena took the most recent shows at both ACW at Distrust, Dismay, and Anti-Social Behavior 2015 and Inspire Pro BattleWars 2 to say goodbye to her fans and to Texas for the forseeable future but while sad it was her going on to bigger and better things, things we can not discuss right now. But before leaving Inspire Pro we had on huge heartfelt moment at Fade to Black 2015 when Matthew Palmer proposed to Athena and she said Yes. One of the moments that really speaks volumes to what the fans mean, what wrestling means and how more then any other sport or entertainment how close they become.
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| When GODS collide! |
Now let us talk about what I thought and my feelings during Athena's matches. Having covered how we got here and seen what Shana "Literarygrrrl" H. thought of her. I won't lie, when I first saw The Wrestling Goddess she was good but I was not yet overly blown away or beyond-words impressed. She was good, but man she got better and better. Even in her entrances she started having flags, armor, flag bearers and more, taking on bigger and better challengers.
I have had the honor of watching her almost since her start, at least in Austin and Texas, I missed her ACW debut but saw her second match where she teamed up with Erin Starr against RAJETT. She came up short that night but it was just the beginning of her rise to the top of many promotions from ACW to AIW. Even making it to ROH Tv several times but I, like many others, really sat up and took notice when she got a one on one match with Rachel Summerlyn in a 10,000 thumbtacks match. Even without the thumbtacks this one would have been brutal as both wrestlers went all out, then you added the 10,000 thumbtacks and we kicked it up to ANARCHY levels.
After this match she had the respect of anyone who she didn't before and she climbed the ranks, facing JT Lamotta when he called out the Joshi's and battled Lady Poison during her reign. Getting her first run in Queen of Queens but not winning it until 2012 and that is where I want to start really.
On Queen of Queens 2012 she had to battle Su Yung, a wrestler she would have a feud with at the end of her time in Anarchy but for this show she won and for the second round she took on Christina Von Erie in a intense but evenly matched...well match...and managed to pull out a win. The Final Match of that Queen of Queens was Athena vs Jessica Havok, and HOLY SHIT! This one kicked everything up several notches. They BEAT the hell out of each other inside and outside the ring using chairs, the ring, walls, and more to it seemed almost KILL each other. I am not a good enough writer to put this into better words, most of us liked Athena and we knew Havok but this is where I feel Athena finally hit her stride and became who we know today, the whole show but this match more than any other.
We started getting flags and honor guards and with Athena as our 2012 Queen of Queens we were watching her go all out after whoever she wanted to and taking on champions and others. When she finally came to Inspire she was set and everyone knew how tough she was and having her face down both tough vets like Veda Scott and up and comers like Kat Green who gave her a match I think she was not expecting.
Sadly though all things must end or grow and that is true in wrestling as well as anywhere. We are excited to see Athena move up and live her dreams, to showcase for the whole world but sad to see her go, no matter what the reason. Don't get me wrong I am thrilled her dreams are coming true, and I hope she keeps moving on up.
She has been amazing, taking on all opponents, going toe to toe both in the ring on and on the mic against people like Rachel Summerlyn, Christina Von Erie, JT Lamotta, Jessica Havok, Jessica James, Jeff Gant, Kat Green, Veda Scott, Portia Perez, Angel Blue, Su Yung, Leva Bates and Lady Poison. But her last feud in ACW was with Su Yung over the Joshi title, when Su won the title she vanished for quite some time and Athena kept calling her out each month.
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| ThunderBOLT |
Finally Su returned and Athena got her shot, finally winning back the ACW belt and her final match, for awhile anyway, was against Su Yung and it went all out, a hell of a battle which became Athena the Charmender vs Su "Pikachu" Yung then Athena the Supergirl vs Su Catwoman Yung and they played the parts perfect. It ended with Athena getting the win and leaving as the Joshi Champ, she lays the belt out and tells us all goodbye and warns the remaining Joshi's that they need to respect the belt as she will one day visit or return.
Over in Inspire she had accepted Matthew Palmer's proposal and took on a Joshi she had battled since the beginning in Jessica James and Athena did not hold back even though they are friends and Jessica gave as good as she got. It was exactly the match I or anyone could have expected. Great, full of pure mat wrestling as well as some high powered moves and they both gave us their all with Jessica pulling at the win.
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| Did he go to Jareds? |
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| She said YES |
