Why Sports Podcast?! Black History Month Profile - Athena/ Ember Moon

The podcast discusses the career of Athena, also known as Ember Moon, a highly talented female wrestler. She has achieved great success, including being the longest reigning Ring of Honor Women's World Champion. The podcast acknowledges that she has carried the Ring of Honor promotion and deserves a larger platform. It highlights her training with Booker T's Reality of Wrestling and her time in WWE, where she became a former NXT Women's Champion. The podcast also mentions her memorable match against Asuka at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn 3. Athena's finishing move, the Eclipse, is praised, and her character work and dominance in Ring of Honor are acknowledged. The podcast encourages listeners to watch her matches and recognizes her contributions during Black History Month. It concludes by paying tribute to the late wrestler Virgil. This is the theme song of our forever winner, winner, winner, world champion, Dominion Overlord Athena. Welcome everyone to the Watch Sports Podcast, it's your boy Alvin Spain and as we continue with Black History Month, we are doing our profile today on simply one of the greatest female wrestlers in the world today, ladies and gentlemen, and that is Athena. Some of you may know her as Ember Moon back in her time as WWE. This young lady is just simply phenomenal and as we mentioned at the start, she is the current and defending longest reigning Ring of Honor Women's World Champion of all time and quite frankly, outside of Bria Ripley who is absolutely killing it, Athena is right at the top of the list as far as female wrestlers go. She is just, she has been playing at another level and I love Ring of Honor, I really wish we would get to see more of this in all elite wrestling because she deserves that much of a platform. She has absolutely not only carried the Ring of Honor Women's Division but quite frankly, she has carried the promotion Ring of Honor as she has main evented the last two matches, last two pay per views of her tremendous work. Again today, we are doing our profile on Athena and I feel like I owe her an apology. On our last profile, when we were doing African American female wrestlers, we highlighted some of the greats of the past like Jazz, Amazing Kong and we highlighted some of those of the present such as Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks but quite frankly, shame on us because we did not mention Athena. Well in lieu of that, allow us to give our minion overlord her proper due and credit today in her own solo profile here on the Y Sports Podcast. So where do we begin? She first started training with Booker T's, what was initially called the Pro Wrestling Alliance but now we know it as Reality of Wrestling. She started training all the way back in 2007 and dominated pretty much all of the Texas promotions throughout that time up until she became a WWE Superstar around 2015 and where she is there, a former NXT Women's Tag Team Champion as well as a former NXT Women's Champion. We've known her for so many great matches but quite frankly, my favorite match of hers of all time and it actually was a match that was my first match, I actually got my girlfriend, now my wife, to watch and she could not stop talking about it. It was NXT TakeOver Brooklyn 3, it was Ember Moon vs Asuka for the NXT Women's Championship match. I will go on record as saying my favorite NXT match of all time, women's or men's, is Bayley vs Sasha Banks in NXT Brooklyn 1. To me, that was NXT's best match, it was it's best story, it was literally everything you could have ever asked for in a wrestling match. This matchup comes right down to top 5. I loved this match. Athena or Ember Moon, she did not win this match that night as Asuka was continuing her legendary championship reign as NXT Women's Champion but this match really put her on the map. For those who really weren't familiar with her work in Texas or even her very early state of Ring of Honor, this was a match where everybody got to stand up and really take notice of Athena and quite frankly, she is the owner of one of the greatest finishing moves I have ever seen. It's the Eclipse and if you haven't seen it, it is basically a top rope Stone Cold Stunner. She comes from the top rope, flips her body and then does a neck crusher on the person and it is just an amazing thing to see and if you haven't seen it, go check that out. It is absolutely phenomenal and again, outside of what we talked about earlier, Rhea Ripley and we gave it, you know, on our Y Sports podcast, Rhea Ripley wasn't just the female wrestler of the year, she was the wrestler of the year. Another person that was right up there with her is Athena. Her character work over these past two years, becoming the minion overlord, becoming the most dominant Ring of Honor Women's Champion of all time, it's just been amazing for her and as a fan of hers, I have truly enjoyed watching her work, watching her efforts in Ring of Honor and I only hope she gets to do it on a bigger stage. May it be All Elite Wrestling or wherever. She has been absolutely phenomenal and ever since she left the WWE back in 2020 and got to come back and got to come into All Elite Wrestling and she initially had her match with Jade Cargill, but ever since she became, was a part of Ring of Honor, she has not only made it her, it is her, it is her promotion. She is that phenomenal and we don't, and it is very rare we get to say that about any wrestler, especially any wrestler of color, but for Athena, especially any color, any women of color, any wrestler of color to say this is their promotion, this is her promotion and as we celebrate all African Americans that have paved the way or are looking to pave the way, we would be naive to not acknowledge what Athena has done, not just throughout the past couple years, but her work right now in Ring of Honor is the stuff of legends. Go check her out, go check out any of her matches, may it be her most recent match with Nyla Rose in a table match, which was just absolutely phenomenal, her matchup with Billie Starks at Final Battle 2023, probably one of the best stories Ring of Honor has ever done, especially in this relaunch and quite frankly, it's probably one of the best stories Tony Khan has ever done and to get to see that match, main event, the Ring of Honor's biggest pay-per-view of the year, it just again speaks volumes of how much she is valued and appreciated and again, my recommendation, please check out her match in NXT TakeOver Brooklyn 30 with her and Asuka and quite frankly, you will be blown away. It is, again, it got my wife talking, that's how much that match meant to her, so thank you for listening today in the Wise Words Podcast. We'll continue to do these profiles throughout the month of February and again, before we close out this podcast here, we would digress to not mention the passing of Virgil today, Mike Jones, he passed away earlier today and he was one of the most underrated characters, especially in the 90s with the million-dollar man Ted DiBiase and of course, his big match-up, his big moment was SummerSlam 1991 when he and Ted DiBiase had their great match and quite frankly, really put Virgil on a whole new level, so RIP Virgil, may you rest in perfect peace and again, thank you again so much for listening to the Wise Words Podcast. It's your boy Alvin Spain and please check and continue to listen out for more of these Black History Profiles as we go through the month of February. We love you all, take care and we'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.