Athena, the Wrestling Goddess takes the NeXT Step

(Scroll to the bottom of the post to read about Athena's NXT debut!)

(I wrote this in September of 2015 as an homage to Athena when she announced she was making the move up from the indy wrestling scene to NXT.)



Sound of knuckles rapping on a door.

"Good evening, sir." I flash the bewildered stranger a winning smile. "Can you spare a moment? I'd like to tell you about The Goddess?"

He scowls, then:

Sound of door slamming in my face.

"I'm not a pagan!" I shout. "I'm talking about the Wrestling Goddess."

The door opens. Half of a man's face is visible through the opening. 

I smile. "Let me tell you about how the Wrestling Goddess has changed my life."

Athena, aka The Wrestling Goddess, wrestled at the very first wrestling show I ever attended: The Show Goes on in February of 2012, a presentation of Anarchy Championship Wrestling in Live Oak, Texas. That was also the very first wrestling show I ever saw, as I had previously never watched professional wrestling in any form or through any media. It hadn't been long since I (finally) finished my master's degree. I fancied myself an academic. I fancied myself a lot of things, actually, but a pro-wrestling fan was not one of them.

In a very real sense Athena, The Wrestling Goddess, changed all of that.

I was introduced to a lot of talented wrestlers at that first show, and I witnessed a lot of very good matches, but it was Athena who made a lasting impression on me. Here was a beautiful, powerful, and eminently talented young woman who commanded respect both from the fans and the other athletes. I was hugely impressed, and, three years later, I continue to be.

I have recently learned that Athena is moving on. She won't be The Wrestling Goddess anymore. What she will be called I don't yet know. (Update: Athena is now known as Ember Moon!) What I do know is that she will still be making an impact in the wrestling world, she will still have the respect and admiration of wrestling fans, and she will always be The Wrestling Goddess in my heart.

That's all I really wanted to say. Pretty soon the whole world will be talking about Athena. Except, of course, they will be calling her by whatever name she's been given. I guess I just wanted to have my say about the Athena I've known before her transformation is complete.

Now I'm going to turn this retrospective over to my boyfriend Brandon, the man who turned me on to professional wrestling in general and The Wrestling Goddess in particular. He has a lot more to say about Athena than me, mostly because he has had the good fortune to watch her in action for several more years than I have. He's also very historically minded. He is going to tell you a whole bunch about Athena's rise to the top of the indy wrestling scene here in Texas, with a special focus on her work in Anarchy Championship Wrestling. ACW is the company that reignited Brandon's childhood love of professional wrestling, and it also played a huge role in shaping the wrestler that The Wrestling Goddess has become.

Without any further ado, please visit Brandon's blog Pinned Down Plus and read all about Athena's colorful and extraordinary career as an indy wrestler in Texas. I'm sure you will enjoy it! While you're there read some of his interviews with other wrestlers on the scene. (Go! Click! Read!)

Update: It has been reported that Athena has made her official NXT debut! She wrestled October 10 2015 at an untelevised live event in Winter Haven, Florida apparently under her actual name, Adrienne Reese. Read more here. 

Update to the update! Ember Moon is set to make her televised, official NXT debut at #NXTTakeoverBrooklyn on August 20, 2016!!

You can follow the wrestler formerly known as Athena on twitter @WWEEmberMoon

The People's Eyebrow

So it's Day 1 of my 21-Day-Challenge!! (Hashtag #21DaysofWords)

Tonight me and Brandon are also going to join countless other wrestling fans at a Ring of Honor (follow them on twitter!) show in San Antonio!! Soooooo excited!

So Brandon thought it would be fun for me to use a wrestling-related writing prompt today. I agreed, and we put the word out on twitter and facebook for ideas. We received several good ones, but I decided to go with this:

"The People's Eyebrow returns to the ring because..."

This awesome prompt was provided by my twitter friend James Neal (@BloodandBlade on twitter). Thanks James!

And here's what I came up with:

It was late-summer hot, the sort of hot that discourages all but the meanest of children and biting bugs from venturing out. Timmy and his little sister Sara played in their front yard. They weren't allowed to leave the small rectangle of parched grass that defined their space but that was okay. Today the lawn was a wrestling ring.

Sara raised one tiny fist to the sky and declared, in her squeaky little-girl voice: “The People's Eyebrow returns to the ring because...!”

“It's People's Elbow, dumbass!” Timmy said. He was ten and very worldly so he knew these things.

“I'm not a dumbass, you are!” Sara said.

“At least I know the difference between an eyebrow and an elbow,” her older brother retorted. “You can't even put Mr. Whiskers in a half-Nelson.”

Mr. Whiskers was Sara's most beloved stuffed animal. Once he was velveteen-soft and the delicious pink of whipped cupcake frosting. Today his fur was coarse and dishwater-gray. Sara clutched him in one grimy hand and shouted: “Yes I can!” Even though she had no idea what a half-Nelson was.

“Oh yeah? Let's see it then!” Timmy said.

Sara threw Mr. Whiskers to the ground and flopped down on top of him. “Count to three, ref!” She hollered.

Timmy, who had been crouched down on his haunches, fell over on his back laughing. He laughed so loud it drowned out the roar of traffic rushing by. He hugged his arms to his belly and gulped and coughed and sputtered.

Sara jumped to her feet. Her cheeks were red with indignation. “Stop it Timmy!”

“You...you...” Her brother started, then dissolved into another fit of giggles.

“Shut up!”

“You think that was a half-Nelson?” He finally managed.

There came a stirring from a few feet away.

Brother and sister stopped fighting. Their heads swiveled in the direction of the sound.

“She's getting up,” Sara said.

In front of their yard, in the strip of pavement that was the no-man's land between sidewalk and the black tar of the street, lay Kelly. She was seventeen and dangerous, with white-blonde hair that fell to her waist, a body that made all the men in the neighborhood stare, and green eyes that flashed fire when she got wound up—and she was always getting wound up. Sara had heard her parents call Kelly a lush. She didn't know what that meant, but she knew that the older girl got dizzy and fell down on the street a lot.

Sara tiptoed up to the very edge of the lawn to get a better look. Her brother followed. They stood there in silence and watched Kelly's eyes flutter open, unseeing. Suddenly, a daring grin spread across Timmy's face. He took a step onto the sidewalk. Sara gasped.

“What are you doing?” She said.

“I'll show you a half-Nelson,” the boy said and joined the semi-conscious girl in the gutter.

Timmy lifted her torso and twisted it around so that she was facing away from him and he held her arms up over her head while squeezing her from behind. Or he tried. Her arms went up and then promptly flopped back down. Her head lolled on her neck. Her pretty green eyes remained open but they didn't register anything.

“See?” Timmy said. “This is how you do a half-Nelson.”

Sara watched, simultaneously fascinated and terrified by her brother's daring move. Cars thundered past him but he seemed oblivious. He squeezed tighter.

“She couldn't move, even if she wanted to,” the boy said.

Then Kelly blinked, and life returned to her eyes. Color flooded into her cheeks. Her neck muscles stiffened. Her hands clenched into fists.

“Gah!” She sputtered.

In one swift move, Kelly ripped her arms out of Timmy's grasp, whirled around, and shoved him—hard—into oncoming traffic.

“NOOO!” Sara screamed.

Timmy's limp body sailed into the grill of a Ford pickup. He hit the truck with a spine-cracking crunch, then bounced off and flew into the gutter on the opposite side of the street. He landed in a twisted, lifeless heap and lay there, unmoving.

Kelly watched everything from where she remained—in the gutter on this side of the street. She didn't say anything, but her expression changed from fury to confusion to horror. Sara dropped to her knees. Blades of grass scratched her skin. Her tormented cries echoed back and forth across the busy street. She wanted to go to her brother and comfort him, but she couldn't. She was rooted to the spot.

She wasn't allowed to leave the lawn.