ROH Women's World Champion Athena Reflects On Growth Of AEW Rookie Maya World

Maya World made her in-ring debut in ROH way back in 2023 in a Proving Ground match against Athena, where she lasted five minutes. Three years later, her mentor to a time limit draw and earn a title shot. While she came up short then, she made an impression. Maya entered the Owen Hart Foundation Cup when she replaced an injured Sareee  just days after losing her brother and made it to the finals. She lost that tournament, but would go on to win the TBS Championship and hold it for 35 days.

During an interview with WFAA, Athena reflected on World's rookie year in AEW. She says the time limit draw was a fluke. When Athena first saw World on the independent scene, she saw something there. "There's a star to be born in there. And you know seeing her go from this super athletic girl to this full blown TBS Champion of a woman to going to Wembley and getting this amazing platform for her to showcase what I already knew. Though I won't say it...that she's phenomenal. She's great."

Athena believes that the local Dallas-Fort Worth crowd will cheer for World like they cheer for her, especially with the way World has overcome adversity. Athena only has nice things to say about World during this interview, but not in real life since World shunned her on national TV.

"But to sit back and be able to watch her grow and to just be thankful to be a part of her journey — even though she will never tell me thank you. She's so ungrateful after everything I've done. I've done it all for her. It's really cool to see her growth and see her wrestle in an arena that I haven't gotten to yet because she took that opportunity away from me, but it's fine. It's really cool to see everything she's accomplished in such a short amount of time."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit WFAA and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.