Could we see Athena vs. Mercedes Mone II soon?
Mercedes Mone is currently on a historic TBS title run where she’s kept the belt for more than 450 days. Throughout that run, the “CEO” has largely remained undefeated in singles competition. Athena hadn’t lost a singles match since winning the ROH Women’s World title back in December 2023. Now Toni Storm shattered Mone’s undefeated streak at All In, but Athena fought Mone before the AEW Women’s World Champion.
It was a great back and forth match that saw Mercedes get the win over Athena. Many wondered whether the 33-year-old would challenge the “Fallen Goddess" for the ROH Women’s World title next. That hasn’t come to fruition, but Athena is certainly open to defending her belt against Mercedes.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s not even a question.” She says responding to WIP Wrestling’s question at the ROH Death Before Dishonor press conference. “She had to cheat to beat me the first time, and I was trying to play it safe, if you will. Honestly, that taught me that I can never take an opponent lightly. That, including Ms. Toni Storm, I maybe stuck my foot in my mouth a little bit. I’m not afraid to admit that. When it comes to Ring of Honor, I’ve done everything possible to keep this championship around my waist and now it’s time to do a mentality switch versus taking people lightly and saying, ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes to win and I don’t care who I hurt in the process,'”
As of this moment, Athena doesn’t have any opponents for the world title. She’s fresh off her victory over Mina Shirakawa at Death Before Dishonor. Mone’s focus is somewhere else though as she’ll be defending her belt against Alex Windsor on Dynamite Wednesday.
Perhaps she’ll challenge Athena if she gets past Riho at All Out. It would be great if these two run it back as their match belongs on a bigger stage than an episode of Dynamite.
There were reports that Mone was willing to lose to Athena in order to have a rematch against the ROH Women’s World Champion at All in, but those plans never happened as both women went in directions following their first and only match thus far. It’s quite possible that these two fight one more time in some type of winner takes all match, but that’s just pure speculation on my end.