AEW: Athena on Her AEW & ROH Career, Britt Baker Clarifies Thunder Rosa Issues, More News

Athena Comments on Doing More in First Year of AEW & ROH Career Than Entire WWE Career

A recent episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast featured Athena as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Athena’s thoughts on feeling that she has done more in AEW and Ring of Honor in her first year with both companies than she did during her entire time in WWE.

“It’s wild, it’s crazy (that I’ve been with AEW almost a full year). I think I actually had this kind of reflection a couple days ago. Well, the week before just the chaos ensued of last week. It was just like, I haven’t even been here a year yet. This is just everything that I’ve accomplished. I feel like I’ve done so much since I’ve been with AEW, since I’ve been with Ring of Honor that I’m like, this is more than what I’ve done in two, three years at WWE I feel like as far as character development, as far as having these matches every single week, day in, day out, just being a little snarky asshole at times on TV which I thoroughly enjoy.

It’s really cool to kind of sit back and just — this week in particular because I don’t think I’ve had a week like this in my career just like ever. Just going from Emi (Sakura) to Yuka (Sakazaki) and now I’m going to Miyu (Yamashita). It’s humbling, it’s anxiety-driven and it’s just like, I have a division on my shoulders and just that pressure is on to deliver because I think a lot of people do wanna see Ring of Honor fail. I think they wanna be the, ‘I told you so Tony’, told you so guys and just the talent here is not willing to let that happen so of course that pressure is on that not only do we want to be in the conversation of a Dynamite, of a Rampage, of a Raw, of a SmackDown but not only that, we wanna be above that. So it’s just the entire locker room feels that way and just going into it, we were like, ‘We gotta do this.’ ‘What are you doing? Hell yeah!’ ‘You go and do it’ and it’s fun, it’s awesome.”

Athena also stated that while she felt a bit lost in AEW after her feud with Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship, she was glad that there were options like AEW Dark to continue to wrestle and not be stuck in catering doing nothing for months.

“When I full boar got here (AEW), I was still the good guy, I still had a couple of really good promos in there with Jade (Cargill) and then it became, okay, thank you for that. We’ll call you when we have something but, here’s Dark and then it became, okay — the entire time I was like, what can I do? And I just felt lost for a while. I was like, no one’s telling me I’m doing a bad job. Everyone’s like, ‘You’re great! You’re doing great!’ And I was like, why? What is happening? And it’s almost a little bit of that WWE P.T.S.D. that seeps in of like, am I gonna be in catering for four months? Oh my God! The benefit is I love the fact that when I come to work, I always have something to do whether it’d be Dark, Dark: Elevation, Rampage, whatever. I love that about this job because I don’t know if I can mentally come to work and not do anything. That would probably kill me more than anything else.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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Britt Baker Clarifies Comments Regarding Her Issues with Thunder Rosa

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured Britt Baker as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Baker clarifying the comments she made towards her issues with Thunder Rosa and her back injury on the debut episode of AEW All Access.

“It’s just like on Twitter, people twist and turn your words and say that you said something that you didn’t. All I did on the show was ask, if she’s able to travel and she’s traveling all over the place, and she’s going on Busted Open every week saying ‘I’m still the champion,’ why can’t you come to work? Why can’t you come cut a promo? Why can’t you come do commentary or come say hi to the locker room? Kris Statlander has had her knees blown out for over a year and she’s there every single week. I have a very workhorse mentality where I want to be at work. As soon as I’m done with Dynamite, I get on a plane and go to the dental office. I can’t relate to that mentality of where you don’t want to be at work, where you tell everyone you’re the champion. I’ll be honest, I’ve asked her that same question twice and she doesn’t have an answer for me either. It’s not that I want her to work hurt or that I don’t believe in her injury. There is none of that. Just, why? Why not come to the locker room where you’re the champion, when you can. You have people like Adam Cole, who couldn’t travel, who couldn’t leave the house for weeks. It was a huge milestone when he could take a walk up and down the street with his head injury. That is what I don’t understand. People don’t have to agree, that’s fine. I’m a bold and stubborn individual and I stand by what I said.”

In response to co-host Dave LeGreca’s comments about Baker and Rosa’s in-ring history in AEW including the their famous Lights Out match for the AEW Women’s World Championship, Baker stated:

“That means the world to me. It’s one of my all-time favorite matches, not just for what it did for me, what it did for AEW, but what I believe what it did for women’s wrestling. I would never take that away from her. I would never say ‘Thunder Rosa is not a talented wrestler.’ She’s probably one of my best opponents. I’ve never spoke ill on any of that.”

Baker also gave her thoughts about AEW having an Interim Women’s Championship following Rosa’s injury.

“I never said anything about the interim title stuff being her fault, but if you can go to Toronto for two weeks for a convention and then we go to Toronto two weeks later for Dynamite, I don’t understand why she can go one time and then not go with the company and the team that she works for. We are a team and it’s a family, and we have a family member that’s not pulling their weight. Even if you can’t wrestle, you can be there. You can be there and hype the girls and the locker room up. You are the champion. That’s a responsibility. It’s not just a shiny title you can cart around the United States and sign autographs for.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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AEW News & Notes

This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Long Island, New York featured FTR defeating The Gunns to become the new AEW World Tag Team Champions in a title vs. career match. While responding to a recent comment by a fan in Twitter, Dax Harwood stated that FTR’s decision to stay in AEW was not due to them threatening to leave if they did not win the titles but instead due to “that schedule keeps me away from my wife and daughter too much & AEW will allow us to give back to wrestling.”

Following this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Long Island, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated in a post-show speech to the crowd that AEW will be returning to New York later this year for this year’s Grand Slam event.

In a recent virtual fan signing event for K&S WrestleFest, AEW coach Jerry Lynn stated that while he would be interested in having one more match, he is unable to do so due health issues related to his neck. Lynn stated “No (I could not have one more match). I would love to but, my neck won’t allow me. I found out probably the last three years I wrestled, I could’ve been paralyzed. Three of my discs were completely flat and I had stenosis all over different parts of my neck. One was central stenosis, right around the spinal cord and there was hardly any room for any spinal fluid to get through.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

Adam Cole recently reflected on Twitter about Thursday being the 15th anniversary of the debut of his wrestling career. Cole stated “Today is my 15 year wrestling anniversary. I’m so thankful for some amazing moments over the years, but there is nothing I’m more thankful for than returning to the ring. Thank you for EVERYTHING. Here’s to 15 more years…we’re just getting started.”

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that The Acclaimed’s merchandise sales in AEW were stated to be doing “incredibly well” for the company.

Indie wrestler Willie Mack recently denied on Twitter that the rumors of him recently signing a contract with AEW are true.