AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/18 - 8/24

AEW Forbidden Door 8/24/25

Toni Storm vs Athena

MD: One of my favorite parts of Forbidden Door was the short film with Nigel McGuinness playing Chess with Johnny Saint (I'm more of a Marty Jones guy but that's beside the point), and I thought that played well into the Nigel vs ZSJ match and the comparison of rigid, tactical chess against an agile sort of jazz. That said, if you want to see a real example of human chess, look at the start of Athena vs Toni. 

Athena rushed in right from the get go, foot flying, but Toni was prepared for her, moving out of the way, giving her a quick mauling, and then using the hip attack to knock her off the apron. Strategic, stylized, tactical and character driven (more on that later). On the floor, Billie Starkz, and for the sake of this, we'll call her Athena's bishop and not her pawn, got right up into Toni's face. Toni, realizing the threat she was, rushed forth to take her off the board, hitting an abrupt Storm Zero out of nowhere. In doing so, however, she opened herself up for the same sort of flying kick that she was able to avoid at the start of the match. Athena sacrificed her bishop for the first two thirds of the match to get this early advantage. Chess.

Which is not to say that these were two measured, focused, clear-headed players. They're not. Toni Storm portrays a madwoman; there's no way around that. Yes, she's one that learned to love herself, learned to embrace the madness, learned to be canny like a fox, to lean into the trickster element of a Bugs Bunny or Groucho Marx, but she began this journey with a mental break and while she can ride the wave to success and skillfully employ mind games, one always sees the cracks within the character. 

Athena's not much better. She entered AEW with fanfare and excitement and quickly fell down the rankings. On one fated night in Canada, she pushed things a little too far on an Elevation taping, felt the bad faith backlash of misogynists and tribalists, and leaned hard into it, never looking back. Riding her own vehicle of madness, each and every crack just tripping her forward with more and more momentum, she became one of the most electric, unpredictable, unstoppable figures in wrestling. In both cases, there's a fine line between madness and genius, between being beloved and reviled, between being a hero and being a monster.

There was no lengthy shine here. It was a short burst ending with Toni taking Billie off the board and Athena taking advantage of the sacrifice. From there, Athena leaned down hard on Toni, focusing on her neck (already injured somewhat due to a prior pile driver on the steps). Toni, of course, fought back at every opportunity, like the champion ace she is, but Athena had one clever, athletic, and slightly askew cutoff after the next. She'd ride Toni's momentum and come back down upon the neck, would contort her body to sneak in a redirection or a trip out of nowhere. 

Toni represents the unbridled creativity of the human heart, embodying the spirit of old cinema: skilled camera tricks in a world before CGI, clever wordplay to get around the Hays Code, silent movie performances that relied upon the eyes more than anything else. Athena however, is the Fallen Goddess, chaos itself stuffed into a relatively diminutive frame, seething rage bubbling up when you least expect it, that magic forearm like its own version of Chekhov's Gun always ready to go off at any moment, loaded and primed by the sheer existence of this malignant and dynamic force of nature. 

And that rage drove her here. If she herself was a burr upon the world, an irritation, an agitation, Toni Storm was all of those things to her.  Athena had a historic reign like no others, but she had been banished to a paywall-locked show, too dangerous and unpredictable to be brought out into the light. Instead it was Toni who had the often literal spotlight. Athena was an athlete, gritty, tough as nails, agile, explosive, but Toni's over the top antics brought Storm flowers, fame, the love of the crowd. Her madness was embraced as genius. Athena's was not.

So while she pressed her advantage, the burr that was Toni Storm and everything about her pressed into Athena's soul. She started to posture and pose, to try to expose Storm to the world as the fraud that she saw her as. Prepared to add insult to injury, she lined Storm up for her own hip attack in the corner, clapping the fans up, posing ridiculously, and running right into Toni Storm's clothesline, right into the start of her comeback.

But Athena was mostly fresh and the two traded blows and bombs. Starkz, having been wiped off the board early on, found her way back up and showed her worth, distracting Storm to allow for Athena to hit a top rope 'rana. Storm went for the Storm Zero, Athena for her over the shoulder codebreaker, but neither worked. And Storm just barely survived Athena's Koji Clutch, her face, painted in white once again in ghastly homage to Baby Jane, itself a portrait of pain and perseverance, the eyes doing so much work.

Athena hit her forearm once. Storm avoided it later on and threw a jarring headbutt of her own, causing Athena to try to crawl away in desperation. In doing so, she yanked the apron cover up onto the ring, setting up Starkz to once again show her merit, pulling it back to prevent an apron Storm Zero. Storm, distracted, fell victim to an Apron O-Face over the top rope. She was left sprawled, half hanging out of the ring, as the ref and Athena had words inside. 

And here the match came full circle, right back to chess. Athena's bishop was causing havoc, about to crush Storm with a chair, but Storm's queen had been held back in wait. Mina rushed out to stop Starkz, driving her to the back and leaving Athena to face Storm alone. Starkz may be driven by fear, but Mina's loyalty comes from a place of love, and queen takes bishop and certainly takes pawn. All things now equal, king vs king (gender roles be damned), Athena managed to survive one Storm Zero, but not the Chicken Wing that followed. 

Storm's canniness had leveled the playing field early on but at the cost of falling to Athena's dogged aggression. Athena, consumed by her own fury, lost sight of the prize. That very force that drove her to such success, her unquenchable rage, here caused a misstep. Even so, she might have won the day save for Mina's intervention. Whether Toni showed herself to be the more masterful chess player or not, on this day, it was controlled chaos, composed madness, that won out, the light of a star driving Athena back into the darkness.