Maya World Wants To Defend TBS Title Against Athena At AEW All In

Maya World wants to defend her newly-won TBS Championship against her former mentor Athena at AEW All In in London. As noted, World defeated Hikaru Shida to win the title at Sunday’s PPV. World has been open about the influence Athena, who trained her, has had on her career and a feud between the two has been teased.

World post-show media scrum and spoke about how Athena prepared her for moments like this. She also named Athena as the person she would most like to face at All In for her title. You can see highlights below:

On Her Progress In Her Career:

“I mean, like Tony said, I just take every opportunity I’ve been given and definitely ran with it. It’s something that I always prided myself with. Like honestly, if I can bring her up, Athena. She prepared me for moments like this. She didn’t know what was going to happen for me or what was going to come for me. But she was like, ‘You’re good. These moments are going to come so you’re going to need to be ready.’ So I just always, like I said, prided myself on, ‘There’s an opportunity, take the ball. Don’t drop it, keep going.’

“And then the Mercedes match just elevated me, and that’s just who she is. She elevates people, and that’s kind of what she did for me. And here I am now, the TBS Champion, so yeah. So exciting.”

On Who She’d Like to Face At All In:

“I get a choice? [laughs] Right to it, okay. Hm, who would I like to face? I mean, we — I feel like my story with Athena isn’t done. I would like to face Athena. But whoever, whoever. Anybody can step up. But Athena, for sure.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.