ROH: ATHENA makes history, but the celebration will have to wait

ATHENA has done it. She has made history once again by surpassing Samoa Joe to become the longest-reigning ROH World Champion in the company’s history. As of this writing, she is at 652 days as champion. 

The “Fallen Goddess” is 54-0 in ROH-sanctioned matches. She is the first woman to main event not just one, but two ROH pay-per-views. While main eventing those pay-per-views, she and Willow Nightingale became the first two Black women to main event to do so. In another piece of trivia, ATHENA is the first Black woman to main event AEW Dark, Rampage, and ROH (Honor Club and pay-per-views).

Upon breaking Samoa Joe’s record, ROH posted an article about the milestone on their website. They noted that ATHENA defended her title 22 times against 18 different opponents. She has had 27 Proving Ground matches and four eliminator matches. The only losses that she’s suffered in ROH were in two tag team matches. The only non-ROH-sanctioned match during her reign came against Nightingale in the Owen Hart Cup tournament. That match was in July 2023 and Nightingale defeated her. 

I recently wrote about the fact that ATHENA was closing in on the record and how no one was talking about it. I’ve lamented several times about ROH and AEW not making a bigger deal of her milestones in the past. When she surpassed 600 days as champion, not a peep from either account. On Sunday, ROH posted a graphic to their social media. 

They even made an ROH Timeline video on their YouTube channel. The video clocks in at just over five and a half hours. It starts with ATHENA’s early AEW career and progresses with her defeating Mercedes Martinez at Final Battle 2022 to become champion. One strange omission is the match that started ATHENA on this path. Her match on Dark with Jody Threat changed ATHENA’s trajectory. The two had an extremely hard hitting match, one that allegedly got them heat in the locker room and definitely online. ATHENA ran with it and became the champion we know and love today.

It was nice to see ROH making a bigger deal about ATHENA than normal. Of course, AEW didn’t acknowledge it on Dynamite. I had wondered if maybe they’d do it on Rampage and/or Collision and air footage of her celebration. That won’t happen as THERE WAS NO CELEBRATION on episode 82. On Sunday, she posted a video with the caption “In celebration of #AthenaDay(my day) I may have did a thing yesterday... Maybe I'll make an official statement later as your Longest Reigning #ForeverROHChamp of all time!!!”

The natural assumption is that the celebration would happen on this week’s episode. To say that her minions were let down was an understatement. This episode was reportedly taped the week of ALL OUT. Hopefully, we get a celebration soon. ATHENA deserves to be celebrated in front of her minions. This is a historic milestone and should be treated as such. 

What’s next for ATHENA? The article from ROH gives us several new possibilities. The next record to break is Jay Lethal’s record of 707 days, which combines his two World Title reigns. There’s also Lethal’s 798 days across two World TV Championship runs. The longest record would be 1486 days, the total of The Briscoes 13 tag title reigns. Your Forever Champion could break all three and set her very own.