Athena Opens Up About Her WWE Release

Before she did, however, creative came to her and said they could now go through with the heel turn she had proposed, supposedly with the support of McMahon himself. Athena shared that she then became incredibly excited and motivated. She dyed her hair red in preparation to return to the old version of her character, went out and filmed vignettes, and then walked into a meeting with “NXT” creative where she was told she was being taken off TV indefinitely due to the shift to “NXT 2.0.”

“I literally go, ‘What did I do wrong, man?’” Athena continued. “And he goes, ‘You did nothing wrong. You’ve been perfect.’ And I go, ‘So why do I feel like I’m always being punished? I do everything that I’m asked. I go over and beyond. What did I do?’ … I literally just sat there, and I go, ‘You know what? Don’t bring me back to Orlando until you have something for me.’”

Though Athena was offered a coaching position in developmental, she told the company that’s not why she was there. “I’m not at that point in my career,” Athena stated. “I love helping people. If I’m there working out, and they want to come, and we working stuff, sure. … But I’m not going to come in here when there’s nothing for me. So I said, ‘I’m staying home and I’m not coming back until you have a TV spot for me.’”

A month later, Athena got the call that she was being released due to budget cuts. After her non-compete, she returned to working independent promotions before then making her AEW debut the following May.