Athena says Billie Starkz is not ready to beat her.
During a recent interview with the Battleground Podcast, ROH Women’s World Champion Athena addressed whether she has imagined losing her title to 19-year-old Billie Starkz in the main event of ROH Final Battle.
“No,” Athena said bluntly. “Because when I look at everything I’ve done this year and I look at everything she’s done this year, it’s just not written for it. It’s not in the stars, not right now anyway. Like this Billie Starkz vs. this Athena, she’s not ready for. I tried to be nice. I tried to bring a friend on this journey with me — or a minion, if you will — on this journey with me. And she fought me every step of the way. She doesn’t understand that I was just trying to help her on the path that she was headed. She was going to get stepped on by every single roster member, not only in Ring of Honor, in AEW.
“I decided to say, ‘Hey, I see you, I see you, Billie. I see that you’re good, I see that you’re hungry, and I see that you’re missing so much because you try to care about these people and you don’t need to.’ She fought me tooth and nail every step of the way. Being the hero of the story, if you will, that doesn’t work for everyone. You’re not going to save every damsel in distress. You don’t have to do that to be successful.”
Athena Compares Herself To Billie Starkz
Athena continued by noting how her career took off once she took a different approach. She noted that Starkz still has an attitude where she is smiling all the time. The champion noted that this shows why she isn’t ready.
“Come look at me, right? The moment that I gave all of that up, my career took a whole other trajectory that I don’t think anyone had on their bingo card this year,” Athena said. “And when you look at that and you compare me to this Billie Starkz, this very, ‘Hey, I’m smiling all the time. I got that look in my eye like I just saw cupcakes and sunshine and puppies,’ every step of the way. You have to sit there and say, ‘She isn’t ready.'”
WrestleZone will have complete coverage of ROH Final Battle as it airs on December 15.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Battleground Podcast with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
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