AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 3/6 - 3/12

ROH 3/9

Athena vs. Willow Nightingale

MD: There was a very quick Kingston vs "Ben Dejo" match and while Serp is my honorary seventh finger, that's not going to get a write up. Instead, we'll go with the match right after it. Athena is someone who I felt was never allowed to reach her potential in the WWE system. They weren't sure who or what she was supposed to be and she was never positioned in a way to really come into her own. For one thing, they never used her as a heel. I saw her early last year against Thunder Rosa on the indies and it was eye-opening. Ever since, I'd hoped that she'd get to lean into that in AEW and thanks to one errant match against Jody Threat in Canada and the subsequent reaction, she got that chance. She's been my favorite thing on AEW TV (or at least YouTube) over the last many months. Moreover, this, to me, is the money feud for ROH. Darkness vs light. Optimism vs jaded wrath. Athena's working broad, a hard-hitting, cruel relentless Disney Villain. She's like something out of Wizard of Oz, or, hey, if Willow's the Babe with the Power, then Athena's a Henson-ian malignant force out of something like Labyrinth. Once she picked up the belt, she went from leading off with the forearm and smashing people into the stairs or the barricades to dancing about like a goblin as well (even as she smashes her fallen opponent's face into the belt post-match).

Long story short, she's living and breathing her character, fully present in every moment of the match. There's no off button. There are no strings to give anything away. She's swimming in the sea of action and reaction and it's a beautiful thing to see. It's that level of commitment and connection that only 2% of wrestlers ever reach, the Terry Funks and Negro Casases and Genichiro Tenyrus. And Willow's the absolute perfect opponent for her here, too big to bully, with hopes too bright to dash. Willow dominated early only to get drawn in to the drape of the arm over the top rope. From there, Athena picked away at her arm like a vulture, culminating in the spot in the stairs and Willow subsequently powering her way through it. Athena responded by slapping her repeatedly and Willow hulked up, driven by adrenaline and dropping the selling in as appropriate a moment as I've seen in a while. The moment she took a breath, that she paused, that she recentered herself and set Athena up for the Doctor Bomb, her shoulder gave out again. It was all completely believable and poetic and in the moment. She survived the targeting that followed and Athena's secondary finisher and even hit her own, but couldn't get the pin just right. Then Athena rolled out and snuck in a big power move at the top of the ramp, like a jackal with her back against the wall. One O-Face over and that was it. While I would have rather kept them apart for another few months and built and built to this, the match itself provides them a foundation to call back to later. I hope Khan sees just what he has here, because it could easily be the feud of the year and the feud to make this first full year of ROH if they manage it well enough. Like I said, Athena's working on an entirely different level than everyone around her and Willow is a once-in-a-lifetime foil for her, the other side of the twisted mirror. All they have to do is run with it.