Athena Reveals What WWE Told Her To Do After Her First Tryout

On the latest "Talk Is Jericho" podcast, AEW star and ROH Women's World Champion Athena spoke about her first few WWE tryouts in the mid-to-late 2000s. Athena, who eventually landed a spot on WWE's roster and became "NXT" Women's Champion, told Chris Jericho that for years the company told her she needed to lose weight before they could hire her.

"I remember getting this [evaluation] form that said, 'Doesn't have the Diva look, work on that,'" she recalled. "They had this whole pamphlet [from] the coach on what you did well, what you didn't do well, what you need to work on ... the main critique was 'doesn't have Diva look,' and then it had some suggestions like, 'Maybe get hair extensions, maybe get new gear, maybe get this.'"

Athena said WWE's Natalya helped her and then she got another tryout a few months later, where she worked with Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes. "Long story short, they said, 'Call me when you lose the weight,'" she said.

That response led to her eating just two cups of strawberries a day for an extended period of time and feeling remorse whenever she had solid food. "At that time, I feel like the hiring process to get into WWE, especially as a woman, was so extremely strict and hard. If you're one pound over that scale ... which did happen, I was like one pound over and they were like, 'Eh, all right, okay, Thicky McThickerson,'" Athena said. After three years of failed tryouts, Athena decided she'd make "a name for myself in women's wrestling on the indies." That route that ultimately opened the door for her in WWE.