Athena to defend ROH Women’s title on January indie show

The first title defense for new Ring of Honor Women’s Champion Athena will not come in an ROH or AEW ring but on the indies instead.

Announced on Saturday, Athena will defend her title against Miyu Yamashita for Prestige Wrestling in Pomona, California, on Saturday, January 21st.

For fans unable to attend, they can watch the action live on IWTV with a subscription.

Athena defeated Mercedes Martinez for the ROH Women’s title at last Saturday’s ROH Final Battle. 

Yamashita should be familiar to AEW fans as she challenged then-AEW Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa for the title this summer at the Fight for the Fallen edition of Dynamite. That followed her non-title win over Rosa when Rose competed in Japan that set up that title match.

Yamashita currently holds the EVE title and is a fixture in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. This will be their first-ever match of any kind.

The future of ROH is somewhat on hold as ROH head Tony Khan said the company’s future TV show will be available on HonorClub but no tapings have been announced. He said news on that would be coming after Wrestle Kingdom in early-January and that he would be pulling back on featuring ROH titles on AEW TV.

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Josh Nason
Josh Nason

Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.