Athena reflected on her feud with Jade Cargill, how it began, and some new details around it.
Athena & Jade Cargill’s History
Back in March of 2022, Athena and Jade Cargill teased a match between the two through a fiery Twitter exchange. It now appears that this exchange happened before Athena’s AEW plans were set in stone.
You can find their full Twitter exchange here.
This exchange was a catalyst for Athena’s first feud in AEW against Jade Cargill and The Baddies. Athena made her AEW debut at AEW Double or Nothing following Jade’s TBS Title defense against Anna Jay. Since then, the two have been in a deep rivalry.
In recent weeks, Athena has been partnering with Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander to take on Jade and The Baddies. Athena recently teamed with Willow Nightingale on the July 20 episode of Dynamite to take on Jade Cargill and Keira Hogan.
Athena recently spoke with Rick Ucchino of the Bleav in Pro Wrestling Podcast about her feud with Jade and how it began.
Athena Compliments Jade
“Well, yeah, for sure. But I look at this as an opportunity to kind of go into something massive to show people not only what I can do as a high flyer, a technician a strong man at times. And I look at like the collaborative effort that could be there. Right? Jade Cargill is a megastar. You just look at this woman, and you see her on the TV, and you’re like, ‘Hold on, let me flip back a couple more channels. What was- what was this Amazon woman I just saw right here?’ And she looks great doing it. And she owns that persona, which is even more fantastic. Because she has a character. Right? A lot of women they’re like, Oh, I’m the good girl. I’m the bad girl. Right? I’m all attitude. I am. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be a good guy different. So that dies. I just gotta say what I say do what I do, and just kind of wait people like me. It’s weird. But when you look at someone like Jade Cargill, it’s just like, ‘Oh, that’s a challenge.’ That’s something I need in my life, right?,” Athena said
How Their Feud Began
The 15-year veteran continued, “And it started on Twitter. Before I even like, before we even got into the final talks of me coming officially to AEW. And it was just like, ‘Ou, there’s something here.’ And like, just me going, ‘Hmm?’ With a little face responding to who’s next just went viral and then she responded. Then I responded. And it just blew out of the water. So it kind of started on Twitter. So thank you blue bird, you did the swimming. But like I think people were so interested in that feud.
And they’re like, ‘Oh, when is this happening?’ Then the Joker thing happened and I kind of I already knew I was going when the Joker happened. So, me and my husband we got on free. We’re like, ‘This is pretape.’ because we knew that weekend I was going. So, we’re like, ‘Oh no, still in Texas.'”
How Much The Feud Means To Athena
And so it was it was just really cool to just be able to go into a main feud right away because I feel like it’s been so long since one I got a singles run. Like not like a singles run, like when the other undefeated streak was alive. Telling stories are so important to what we do in pro wrestling, right, because that’s what gets people invested and coming into this story with Jade Cargill. Like, that means a lot to me.
Athena: I’m Gonna Knock Her Flat On Her Ass
So I want to put all of my effort, all of my emotion, all of my physical well-being into this, to make it good to make people relate to, ‘Hey, like, I’m 5’1. I don’t care that she’s six foot.’ Whatever, like, I don’t care, I’m gonna knock her flat on her ass. That’s what I do. You know. And like, the one thing that has stayed true throughout my entire career is that, like, if there’s a challenge there, it doesn’t matter how many times I get knocked down, I’m going to beat that challenge. And I don’t think people really know that about me as a person. Like, I’ve had so many tryouts in the former life. That like, I was like, ‘Nah, I’m kicking this door down, baby. We’re gonna get there, right? We’re gonna get there and though.’ I finally got there, so like, that’s just the type of person I am.
Maybe it’s because I’m a massive gamer, that I will sit here and rage play every game until I till I have a mental breakdown. But like, that’s me. It’s like, I’m going to beat the big monster. I’m going to beat the big bad at the end of the adventure. I like to win. That’s what I do. You know? And it’s just like an alpha mentality of just like, I gotta be the best. I’m gonna beat the best to be the best. You gotta beat this Hussy here. I’m gotta say the (unintelligible) because I don’t want someone to come after me with DNCAs and all that stuff.
Athena Imagines Epic Battle With Jade
But you guys get what I’m saying is that like, this person who has made a career out of nothing in the pro wrestling world, because she was very accomplishable before she got here. Out of nothing in the pro wrestling world, who is at the top of the mountain right now. And I’m like, ‘I want to kick her off this mountain.’ Even then, even if I don’t kick her off the mountain because we all know it’s pro wrestling, right? Like, I want people to remember what I did at the top of that mountain that we had this epic battle on top of Olympus and lightning was striking and angels were weeping and fire from Hell was blazing up and I want it to be that I want to do this epic, like rock battle, if you will.”
Athena’s AEW Record
Athena received her first loss in AEW this past week on AEW Dynamite. Her current AEW 2022 record is 3-1 and she is not yet ranked. However, due to this feud, it is more than likely that Athena will become ranked and will challenge Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship.
Watch Rick Ucchino’s interview with Athena:
