Athena: I Learned So Much as a Booker Watching Tony Khan Help With ROH/MPX Global Wars

Athena reflects on booking Global Wars with Tony Khan.

While appearing on Black Rasslin’. The forever Ring of Honor Women’s Champion, Athena spoke about bringing up the idea to work around her exclusive MPX “Who Runs The World?” while AEW was in town with Tony Khan, and how quick he was to suggest that they run a cross-promotional show between MPX and ROH.

“That was a very wild conversation. I remember going to Tony Khan and I was like, ‘Hey! We run MPX. I’m one of the co-owners of MPX and I exclusively book Who Runs The World?’ But we run a weekly wrestling show in Dallas in Bedford, Texas every single week, and it’s very draining at times and very tiring and then we hear this residency’s coming in and normally, we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re not gonna run against it’ but I was planning a ‘Who Runs The World?’ show in January originally. So I went and I had a meeting with (Tony), who’s the best boss ever, and I’m telling him, I was like, ‘I really wanted to do Who Runs The World? in January. Is there a way we can work around that?’ And he goes, ‘You know what? How about Global Wars? MPX/ROH Global Wars…’” The host mentioned that Khan’s idea was not something Athena was thinking about, and she said, “No, not even a little bit. He’s like, ‘Your guys are always so great and respectful. They work hard when they’re here. Let’s do a Global Wars on Ring of Honor. Ring of Honor’s your show and we’ll do Athena’s minions versus ROH,’ and I was sitting there and he was like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I was like, ‘Thank you so much!’ I truly was not expecting any of that and that just shows how in love Tony Khan is with pro wrestling. That just shows the type of person he is. He doesn’t have to hand out these opportunities, especially to people that are my students but he trusts in me, he trusted my vision, he trusted my coaching and kind of sitting alongside him, I remember we sat there at 1 AM and we were talking about good matches for people and I mean, he had a ton of amazing ideas, like Exodus (Prime) versus Lee Moriarty… And I wanted my boys Surf and Turf with the harpoon! But, seeing all the feedback coming back from all the guys and gals that did amazing. Vert Vixen, and Maya (World), Hyan,” Athena reluctantly mentioned those last two names because of their on-screen issues. “But, I really thought everyone was heavily showcased and it was really awesome and we actually got a little card subject to change because of the snowstorm that happened, and it was just really awesome and I’m just incredibly thankful, one, to kind of sit beside T.K. and see his vision and see his brains and see how his brain operates and I learned so much from him, watching how he does do AEW, watching how he does do ROH and being the forever ROH Champion, I do get to sit alongside him and see kind of his vision for everything, and it’s really eye-opening and it’s a learning experience for me. I’ve been a wrestler for 20 years at this point in time. But being a booker is still very new for me. Balancing and managing talent is still very new and I have an amazing team at Metroplex Wrestling, who does that while I’m at work doing AEW Collision…”

Athena has held the ROH Women’s Championship since December 2022, many have stepped up to the plate, but the Fallen Goddess has hit grand slams each time she steps out to defend her title.

h/t to Fightful for the transcription.

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