AEW's Athena: If I were a man, there wouldn't be backlash to me being hard-hitting

Ahead of her challenge of Ring of Honor Women's Champion Mercedes Martinez at Saturday's Final Battle, AEW roster member Athena talked about criticism of her revived hard-hitting style and the re-emergence of her as a heel character.

While on Busted Open Radio Tuesday, she unapologetically addressed those who complain about her being too physical recently.

"People forget that the girls can hit just as hard as the guys. I have to sit there and see Jon Moxley and (Chris) Jericho and (Wheeler) Yuta and all these guys hit the tar out of each other. I guarantee you if I was a man, I feel like there wouldn’t be as much backlash or anything like that," she said.

"It’s all these old, bloated farts that wanna sit there and tell us, 'Oh no, we need to go out there and look pretty' and then they complain when it’s a dance. They complain when we hit hard. Get over it. We’re out here to be just as good as the guys and we give it our all. We put in all of this time and effort to hone our craft and I feel like sometimes, we are underappreciated when we do things like that," she continued.

The change started during a match in Toronto against Jody Threat that was taped for Dark: Elevation. Athena worked heel against the Canadian and it evolved into a very physical affair with Fightful reporting that both wrestlers were talked to afterward to ensure things were fine.

Athena said this recent evolution was put into motion because she felt like it. She didn't want to get lost in the AEW shuffle and asked herself what she could do to stand out.

"You start second guessing yourself and then finally, you just have to say ‘F it’ and that’s basically what I’ve done is just say ‘F it’ and I’m gonna do what I do best," she said, later adding that getting back to a hard-hitting style if something she has wanted to get back to throughout her entire TV career. 

After nearly seven years in WWE as Ember Moon, she was released in November 2021, signing with AEW earlier this year.

Her match Saturday marks her return to ROH where she wrestled six matches in the first half of 2013. She also faced Martinez several times in singles match in the past, both for NXT and Shimmer.