Athena Says Maya World Called Her In The Middle Of The Night After Getting Signed To AEW

Athena comments on Maya World getting signed by AEW.

Fans rejoiced when Tony Khan announced the signings of Maya World and Hyan during the AEW Worlds End event in December 2025. Since then, World has made a ton of history with the company, including a 35 day reign with the TBS Championship earlier this summer.

Speaking with Denise Salcedo for a new interview, Athena recalled consistently pushing Maya World to be better after discovering her on the Texas indie scene.

“Maya was one of the first women in the Texas area that I avidly went after. I saw her on a show and I was like, ‘Man, there’s something there.’ There’s something really special that came to mind, the way she moved, the way she performed. She was just missing a couple of beats so I invited her to come train with me. She had been training with me for almost three years and I remember just trying to get her in front of TK at one point in time. I remember having her first match on an AEW show, I can’t remember [what show] it was, but I remember being like, ‘Yo, TK, you got to see this girl.’ I remember it was after a match with Billie and I was so sore. I was so sore, Billie beat my butt black and blue. I was just like, ‘Give her a match with me, let me show you what she can do.’ We had this match, she lost because I’m the trainer. I remember they kept bringing her back and bringing her back, it just took that one step. I was like, ‘Girl, we’ve got to get you new gear, we’ve got to get you this, we’ve got to get you that. Hey, we’ve got to work on your promos. We’ve got to work on this, we’ve got to work on that.’ I was just hounding her left and right and then soon enough, when the moment came, she took advantage of an opportunity and she ended up with a contract.”

Athena continued her story by recalling when World called her in the middle of the night about being signed.

“She called me like at like 2 AM. She called me like six times and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this must be an emergency, what’s going on?’ I’m getting out of the bed and she’s like, ‘I did it. I did it.’ I was like, ‘Girl, it’s so loud, what are you doing? What did you do?’ She’s like, ‘I got signed, they offered me a contract.’ I just like cried because I was like, oh, thank goodness she did it. It didn’t take her ten years like it took me, she’s very early in her career and she’s very young. She’s very eager to learn. I was just so happy for her in that moment. I was just like, ‘Oh my god, you did it.’ Then I was like, ‘What about Hyan?’ We wrestled then that night in a tag match.”

Of course, Athena also took the time to check on Hyan when she heard the news about Maya World.

“I texted Hyan at like 4 in the morning, I was like, ‘Hey girl.’ She’s like, ‘Hey…’ I was like, ‘Girl, so…’ and she goes, ‘Yeah?…’ I was like, ‘Girl.’ I called her like, ‘Girl, did you get signed?’ I had to call her. She goes, ‘Yeah, we did it.’ I was just so happy because Hyan was someone that I had just seen up and down the indie scene who’s a phenomenal — I don’t say enough kind things about Hyan. She worked so hard, she traveled around the world and it was so awesome to see two of the girls that we’ve used for Who Runs The World.“

Athena rounded out the conversation by saying that she’s excited to see what the future holds for World and Hyan.

Check out the current lineup for this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite by clicking here. 

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