Athena: I Feel Like I Have To Have One More Match With Asuka Eventually
Athena wants want one more match with Asuka.
After saying her goodbyes to IYO SKY on a recent episode of Raw, ‘The Empress Of Tomorrow’ is set to take some time away from the world of professional wrestling. Nobody quite knows what is next for Asuka, but there is no doubt that her importance and value is still as high as its ever been.
Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Athena spoke about her past battles with Asuka.
“Oh, man. Like Asuka is one of those people, that’s a forever rival for me. Like when we were back on the indies, we actually ended up wrestling at Shimmer Women’s Wrestling. That’s where we met. We had one of the hardest hitting matches I think I’ve had in my career then, and then fast forward to WWE NXT for the NXT Women’s Championship. Asuka is my yin to my yang. I really hope she’s not stepping away. I’ve actually been trying to get a hold of her because I lost a whole bunch of people’s numbers when I switched my phone and everything.”
Athena continued on and praised Asuka’s status as a living legend.
“But man, talk about someone who’s just the epitome of what legendary status is or what a living legend is. I, to some extent, don’t feel like people really understand how much she’s done for wrestling as a whole. Like from grinding on the indies to being like an independent contractor in Japan to getting signed to WWE. Not only that, like just excelling in WWE in every form and facet from match to match, but never changing who she was as a person, a character. I couldn’t be more proud, more happy for her. I hate her in that same breath, of course.”
To round out the topic, Athena said that she’d love to have one more match with Asuka.
“I also feel like I have to have one more match eventually and hope that this isn’t it. This isn’t the long goodbye, if you will. But like, Asuka’s one of those people that I wouldn’t be who I am as a performer, as an athlete, if she wasn’t in my life. If she wasn’t on the opposite side of the ring. I don’t think I would have gotten anything really if I didn’t have that experience with her.”
As many fans will remember, Asuka and Athena (Ember Moon at the time) faced off at NXT TakeOver: Orlando and NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III in 2017.
Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Athena in the video linked at the top of this article.
