Athena Says The Fight To Honor Jay Briscoe At Final Battle Means The World

Athena reflects on her first meeting with Jay Briscoe and what the Fight To Honor him means.

Athena reflects on meeting Jay and Mark Briscoe for the first time.

In 2013, a young Athena would make her way to Ring Of Honor, where she would work alongside Team RnB. She would remain part of the promotion until late 2015, when she would sign with WWE and begin a run on NXT.

While speaking to WrestlePurists in a recent interview, Athena reflected on meeting The Briscoes for the first time when she began working for Ring Of Honor. The Ring Of Honor Women’s World Champion noted that they were the first people that she met at the promotion.

“I remember the first time I met Jay and Mark, I was probably like 19 or 20. We’re not going to age myself we’re just gonna give a vague range. I remember I was so shy, it was one of my first loops with Ring of Honor at the time and I was just afraid to say hi. I remember Jay and Mark walked up and they go, ‘hey girl’ and I was like ‘oh hey’ they’re like ‘we’re chicken farmers’ and and it took me aback and they’re like ‘very nice to meet you what are you doing?’ I’m like ‘I wait tables and I work at Target’ and I remember they were the first people that I met at Ring of Honor and they were just so nice and so warm and so welcoming in this very wild crazy place.”

Athena continued, noting how The Briscoes were so warm and welcoming to her, including when she made her way over to All Elite Wrestling. She would also discuss the Fight To Honor Jay Briscoe that is scheduled to happen at ROH Final Battle on tonight’s pay-per-view. 

“When I got to AEW and I saw them for the first time they gave me a big ‘girl I know you don’t remember us’ and I was like ‘I remember you with that heart open of course I’m going to remember you for the rest of my life!’ and it was just something that they were always so warm, always so welcoming. For us to do a tribute like this of this caliber, putting tag team wrestling on a platform for the sake of a great cause and just having everyone come together for Jay. That means something because we all care because at the end of the day none of these guys had to do this and I think that’s what is first and foremost. We could have came out, we could have put  the entire roster on the ramp and said ‘hey guys this is how we want to honor him.’ But I know that’s not how Jay would want to do things. I remember Mark, he went and had a match and we all came out for the end of the match on the ringside he goes ‘Jay wouldn’t want me to do this,’ he said ‘he wouldn’t want me to cry you know’, and it was just really humbling to see how much Mark loves his brother. Maybe I’m just going too in depth behind the scenes but it just it means something to all of us. The guys that are actually, you know, going out here and putting on this match in his memory? That means the world.”

The Fight To Honor Jay Briscoe will feature The Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli taking on the team of Mark Briscoe and FTR.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Athena would discuss main eventing her second straight Ring Of Honor pay-per-view. You can read more about that here.

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