Athena Reflects On ROH Women's Title Run, Becoming Longest Reigning Champion

By Eric Mutter
Athena holds up the Ring of Honor Women's Title Ring of Honor

Since winning the Ring of Honor Women's Championship at Final Battle 2022, all Athena has done is set records. Along with Willow Nightingale, she became the first woman to ever headline an ROH PPV at Death Before Dishonor 2023, the first woman, alongside Billie Starkz, to headline ROH's premiere event, Final Battle, in 2023, all while securing the longest title reign and most successful title defenses in the history of the ROH Women's Championship. All those accomplishments arguably pale in comparison to the one she accomplished on Sunday, however, when Athena became the longest reigning champion in the history of Ring of Honor.

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After taking a few days to soak it all in, Athena posted a lengthy statement on X Tuesday evening acknowledging the milestone. The "Forever Champ" admitted that she had been trying to put her feelings into words for days, but had been unable to, and was still struggling to do so now. Somehow, Athena persevered, and managed to thank her "minions" that had her back, the "trolls" who motivated her, and perhaps most importantly, all the "hussy's" she had beaten along the way to prove that she was "THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!!!"

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Athena's 646+ day reign breaks the ROH record previously held by Samoa Joe, who's ROH World Championship reign in the early 2000s lasted 645 days. There does remain one last milestone for Athena to catch, however, as she still doesn't hold the record for most successful title defenses in ROH history. At 22 successful title defenses, Athena still trails the World Title reigns of Joe, Bryan Danielson, and Nigel McGuinness, who had 29, 38, and 38 successful title defenses respectively, and Jay Lethal's ROH TV Title reign, where he successfully defended the belt 36 times.

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