Nothing has come easy for Kris Statlander during her now six years with AEW. Despite being the primary woman to have reigns as AEW TBS and AEW Women’s World Champion, Statlander has also had to beat loads of adversity, most notably two different ACL injuries that kept her out of motion for many of 2020 and most of 2022. That adversity has transitioned over to kayfabe as well, largely because of her on again, off again friendship with Willow Nightingale.
In an interview with “TMZSports,” Statlander got a bit emotional discussing how all of these items had affected her, particularly revealing the problem of getting to beat the injury after which reset as each a performer and as a personality.
“I feel like…I’ve just been a relentless, up and down wave of attempting to work out who I’m, and attempting to tell individuals who I’m,” Statlander said. “And just being type of lost in myself that I have not really been capable of sit down and get the possibility and explain to numerous people like ‘That is who I’m. That is who I want.’ After which, , I fortunately got a really…as a result of Toni Storm being slightly radical and on the market, she’s like ‘You, you you, title match.’ And we’re like ‘Okay, great. I’ll reap the benefits of this chance.’
“Meanwhile, I used to be in the midst of trying to search out myself. Here I’m with the championship out of that. People still don’t know the way they feel about me cause I’m undecided how I feel about myself. And Toni Storm, who’s so sure of herself, Mercedes Mone, who’s so sure of herself, and I’m still over here attempting to ‘No guys, I’m really good at this. And I promise I’m worthy of this.’ It’s just been very tough for me to resonate with the fans again.”
For those who use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “TMZ Sports” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription