“The Fallen Goddess” Athena breaks a milestone record
THE FOREVER CHAMPION...
“The Fallen Goddess” Athena breaks a milestone record
On March 22, 2003 at the NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS event, Samoa Joe defeated the late-Xavier to become the 3rd ROH Champion. For ROH that night meant the restoration of honor to championship that had been held for six months by one of the company's most loathed individuals. As talented a wrestler as “The All Around Best” Xavier may have been, his standing as a member of Christopher Daniels' Prophecy meant he did not uphold the Code of Honor, nor respect what it represented to Ring of Honor.
With Joe as champion, the title was thrust to the forefront of the company, becoming the prize every competitor fought to claim and he elevated it from a regional promotion's marquee title to a true World Championship. For 645 days, Samoa Joe dominated the competition, securing 29 championship victories over men like “The Notorious 187” Homicide, Colt Cabana, Bryan Danielson, both Mark and Jay Briscoe, as well as engaged in one of the most legendary trilogy of bouts ever held in a ROH ring. His title reign came to an end at FINAL BATTLE 2004 in Philadelphia, and for 7,203 days it has remained the benchmark in ROH history. Only Nigel McGuinness remotely come close to touching that benchmark as ROH World Champion, and even he was 100 days shy of tying Joe's record.
As far as the other championships in Ring of Honor, the ROH Women's World TV Title is too new to even come close, the Men's World TV Title record is held by Joe at 574 days, the World Tag Title record is in the camp of The Foundation with 441 days, and the World Six-Man Title record stands at 405 days with MexiSquad. All of those are a far cry from Samoa Joe's milestone, but if you notice, there is one championship missing from that list, the ROH Women's World Championship, and that is because as of the end of day on 9/15/24, “The Fallen Goddess” Athena has eclipsed Joe's nearly-twenty year record!
The fourth champion in the title's history, Athena defeated Mercedes Martinez at FINAL BATTLE 2022 to take the Women's Division crown and in the 646 days since, she has defended her title on 22 occasions against 18 different opponents, with Willow Nightingale and Miyu Yamashita both failing twice, and Kiera Hogan falling to Athena in three bouts. She's put down challenges from former AEW Women's World Champions Nyla Rose and Hikaru Shida, as well as women like Marina Shafir, Skye Blue, Emi Sakura, and Yuka Sakazaki.
Then there is her record in Proving Ground and Eliminator contests; during these last 646 days, Athena has turned away four Eliminator challenges and 27 on the Proving Ground. Of all those challengers attempting to last ten minutes with the champion, the benchmark by which one could earn a future World Title match, Trish Adora lasted the longest at 7:11 with Roxanne falling in just 0:33 when she tried her hand against “The Fallen Goddess”.
Save competitors over the last 22 years who had one or two matches inside a ROH Ring, Athena likely has the strongest winning percentage in ROH's history. With 59 matches on her ROH resume, Athena has only lost twice, and both of those were in tag team competition where Billie Starkz lost the bout for their team. That means 57 victories, a perfect 54 in one-on-one competition, and an overall 96.6 win percentage. She has truly lived up to her self-imposed moniker of “The Forever Champion” given that every one who has stepped to her has been stepped on, stepped over, or smashed to pieces.
The record Athena has produced begs the question: is there anyone left? Will “The Fallen Goddess” truly reign over this division forever? For 646 days no one has been able to take the ROH Women's World Championship away from her, will we next see her eclipse Jay Lethal's record of 707 days across two World Title reigns or his 798 days as World TV Champion between two reigns? Can Athena take one title reign and surpass the 1486 days The Briscoes spent as World Tag Champions over their 13 reigns on top? At the rate she is going, all these things seem possible...