During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander talks on winning the AEW Women’s World Title at AEW All Out last year. She also talks on the differences between her character and how she is in real life and how she landed in AEW.
Kris Statlander on her Women’s World Title Reign After Being in AEW for Six Years
“I guess I kind of agree. I feel like you shouldn’t always necessarily need to brand yourself as a champion in order to be worthy of having this memorable career, so to speak. I feel like actually winning the championship kind of came at a really weird time for me. It almost didn’t feel like it was the right time, because the way Toni Storm went about making the match was like, You, you, you, let’s go do it, and we’re like, okay, so it’s kind of like taking advantage of an opportunity. Meanwhile, I was still getting harassed by the Death Riders and trying to sneak my way out of dealing with them. And then the up and down situation with Willow, and then me and Harley were kind of a thing. It was like a really, really weird time where I was very unsure of what I wanted to do and what path I wanted to take. Now I’m in this opportunity to win this belt I’ve never gotten a chance to win, and I haven’t wrestled four in years at this point, so it’s like, I’m not gonna not take the opportunity, just because in my mind, things are all over the place. But at the same time, it felt really weird. It was just kind of like, well, I guess we’re here, so okay, and now it’s just kind of been an uphill battle trying to cement myself and find myself, while also putting myself and showing everyone who I am as the World Champion. So it’s been a really odd time.”
On If She Felt She Wasn’t Ready To Win the Title at That Time
“No, I felt I was ready. It’s really more just like a mental [feeling of] I don’t know if everyone is ready to see me in this position, if that makes sense. Because I feel like fans were always hesitant to like me a little bit still, because of the fact that I turned on my one of my best friends and I and I punched Orange Cassidy in the face, and I murdered Willow for a good couple of months, so it’s hard to kind of and then I was like, No, guys, I messed up, and now I’m going to try and be better. And everyone’s like, Okay, but why? And I’m like, trust me. I know what I’m doing. I feel bad, and I never really did anything to gain everyone’s trust back. So it’s more I feel like people are happy for me. They think that I deserve it, but people can be like, ‘Oh, I’m happy for this person, they deserve it, blah, blah, blah…’ and then don’t really care what happens after they get to the top. So now I’m trying to rebuild my friendships and prove to everyone that I’m worthy of being a champion, and also keep telling myself like, No, you deserve to be here. You’re ready for this. It’s fine. You don’t have to worry about it. But I have a lot of emotions in my head about this, so it’s been a little bit of an internal battle, even though I feel very confident in my abilities.”
On the differences between her character and her real-life self and if they are similar:
“Well, Kris Stadtlander, the non-wrestler, it’s spelt s, t, a, d, t, l, a, n, d, e, r, so that’s really a big difference. I also feel like I’m very shy, and when I’m meeting new people, I really don’t speak a lot because I don’t ever want to like interfere with the vibes of other people in a group, and I worry sometimes people might not think I’m friendly for that, but I always try to be friendly. I like to keep to myself. I like to be kind of alone a lot of my time. But then at work, big, powerful, strong person, and I try to be more out there. I try to be bold and daring and scary and stuff like that. But I’m not a scary person. I’m not an intimidating person. I’m such a weird, weird, weird, weird, dork person, and I don’t have any shame in that. I’m not afraid to admit that, and I think it’s taken me a long time to be like I don’t care if you think I’m weird. I don’t think care if you think I’m cringey in my personal time, because that’s who I am, and I’m not gonna apologize for acting weird on my own time. So I think that’s the biggest thing, is that I tried to kind of be everybody, be both of them at once. When I was alien Kris early on, trying to be like, No, I’m just a weird person, and I’m gonna do embarrassing things, but I’m an alien, so it’s fine. You understand that it’s different, but now trying to be a more serious, more badass character. People don’t like it when you do weird things, they’re like, that doesn’t make any sense. And I’m like, Well, I’m sorry. It’s just me. I can’t help it, sometimes.”
On making her debut with AEW in 2019 as Kris Statlander, the same year she made her debut on WWE SmackDown under the name Kristin?
“Well, originally the team name was supposed to be the Brooklyn Pizza Connection, and we were supposed to be named Saucy and Cheesy.”opportunity with AEW come about?
On how the opportunity with AEW came about:
“I got an email, and I was like, Okay, I’ll go. Sounds great. Then I was very fortunate when I showed up to AEW, just as an extra work, they brought me in. I got the dark match, and we had done training before in the ring, and before I even did my dark match, I remember people being like, did anyone talk to you about your contract? And I was like, I don’t even do anything. Are you sure? And then we had gotten into the talks of turning it into me being a part of the roster. But I just remember showing up, and I was like, Why do you want me here? I didn’t even do anything yet. So, yeah, that’s kind of how it worked out, just getting the emails and just working hard. I remember that day, whatever, the day that I got my first opportunity with AEW, I was doing like six shows a week at the time on the Indies, I was tired. Three weeks in a row, I did like six shows.”
The full interview can be viewed below:
