Kris Statlander (@callmekrisstat) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss winning the AEW Women’s Championship and if she felt she was ready, her nickname “The Galaxy’s Greatest Alien”, her violent match with Willow Nightingale at All Out, landing on a bed of nails in Blood and Guts, her WWE appearance and why it didn’t lead to more, bringing Jade Cargill’s TBS Title reign to an end, and more!
A lot of fans would say that this was a long time coming. About six years in AEW, you became the Women’s Champ.
“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 Deathriders 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.”
Did you feel you weren’t ready to win the championship?
“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 there 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.”
So how did wrestling find you?
“I met friends who were wrestlers, and when I was doing my stunt double training at the time, when I was 18, they were like, ‘That’s similar, come valet us.’ I was like, Sure, I don’t know what that is, but, ok. So I would go, and they would just kind of give me a quick rundown of how to be a manager. And I was like, okay, and then I would just leave, and I’d be like, I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
So what’s the moment when you fell in love with wrestling?
“I kind of fell in love with it when I realized I could do a lot of what the in-ring stuff was when I was still kind of valeting. I think that’s kind of when I was like, oh, I want to try that. I want to give it a go. And then I started my in-ring training, and it definitely wasn’t like a one moment hit, and I was like, This is what I want to. It was a very gradual, a slow fall, if you will, in love with it. I started my in-ring training, and then three months into training, I broke my heel, split my heel bone right in half, and then I sat and watched training every day for the two months that I was out. And then when I got back in the ring right after, and I was able to pick things up a lot quicker, I feel like that’s kind of when one people really started taking me under their wing, because they saw how much that I cared about it. When I when people started helping me a little bit more, is when I realized I was like, Oh, this is actually something I can actually do and pursue, especially now that people want to see me succeed at it. And then it just became something that I kind of just never really knew where it would take me. I just sort of was like, let’s just see where it goes. And now here we are.”
Your name is Kris Statlander and your character’s name is also Kris Statlander. How were they different, and how are they 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.”
You were The Galaxy’s Greatest Alien. Are you still an alien?
“Well, I’ve never said I wasn’t, and I think that says enough as it is. When I went from Galaxy’s Greatest Alien to more than a woman, I did that purposefully, because I like the undertone of being more than a woman. So it’s like a little bit different, or more than just the ordinary sort of. Now doing cosmic killer is kind of like cosmic is just, it means large and of great proportions and stuff like that. It doesn’t necessarily mean space, so it’s still kind of like underlying tones of everything, without having to be like alien, oh, my god, out of this world.”
We have to talk about this wild match at All Out with Willow. What was the most painful thing in this match?
“I know what you’re expecting me to say, and you know what? This wasn’t a physical pain thing. This is an emotional pain thing. At one point in the match, we took out the chains where we tied ourselves to each other, and I tied hers to her, and I was having trouble tying mine to me, and I just head-butted her to kind of keep her down. And I was like, I’m so sorry, because that wasn’t an initial idea of something that might happen. So that was probably the worst thing that I did. I was like, Oh, I had to just keep you down. That wasn’t my favorite thing I’ve ever done, but you gotta eat up the time somehow, while I was struggling with my wrist. So that one probably hurt me the most emotionally.”
What was the overall idea you guys had going into that match? Because it was violent.
“Yeah, I think we really wanted to just push the boundary of what we’ve been allowed to do. We got really lucky that we were able to do a light tube spot, because that’s not something with fans around and the glass. It’s very dangerous. But doing it on the stage and kind of away from the fans, that was a good way to kind of cover our bases. Also probably won’t be able to do that anytime in the future, just because it’s shatter risk, and we don’t want to put any fans in harm’s way at all.”
Was that your first time taking light tubes?
“Yes, actually, yeah. And it was not as bad as I thought. It did kind of burn a little bit. There’s a lot of things in wrestling that don’t look very fun. Obviously, I’m sure the other spot you’re thinking of is the splits on the thumbtacks. I will say I was thinking about that for months. I had that spot in my head for months. I wanted to do it so bad, and it really wasn’t that bad, because it was mostly my thigh. So we’re good.”
Tacks don’t look fun:
“Yeah, it’s not fun. It’s not as bad as you would think. I think the worst tack thing I actually did it to Marina, where I barefoot dropped her onto the tacks. That’s probably the most painful tack thing you could probably take. And I didn’t even do that one. So kudos to her.”
In Blood and Guts you fell onto a bed of nails!
“Again, not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.”
The photo you posted later looked bad.
“Yeah, I think I still have some scars on my lower back from it, but I like scars. So I was like, yes! I think they’re cool. I’ve been dying to get a face scar. Have something happen. Get a nice, cool face scar. That’s my wish. That’s my dream.”
This match with Jade Cargill. She goes into it, she’s 60-0. She has the streak. She’s undefeated. You end up beating her. It’s a huge moment. You become the TBS champion. Talk me through this match.
“Well, it was my first match after my second knee surgery, getting thrown into that, a title match and trying to defeat the undefeated, big task ahead of me. My goal was really to do the unimaginable and pin her. And I did that. I think a lot more things in my head was like, don’t trip on your entrance, and blah, blah, blah. I did kind of lose my balance on my entrance and I was like, great, this is off to a great this is off to a great start. But it all happened so fast that by the time I was holding the belt, I was like, where am I? What just happened? Similar feeling to when I won this one, too. Both of my title reigns were very much like, well, I guess we’re here. I did it. So yeah, my goal was just to do the impossible, I think.”
In 2019, the same year when you made your AEW debut, you also made your WWE debut on SmackDown. You just went by Kristin on that episode of SmackDown. Why were you just Kristin?
“Well, originally the team name was supposed to be the Brooklyn Pizza Connection, and we were supposed to be named Saucy and Cheesy.”
Were are you gonna be Saucy or Cheesy?
“I don’t know, we never got that far, but those were the options. Then it was the Brooklyn Belles, and then just used our first names. But I was like, that would have been iconic to have been either saucy or cheesy, and my only match there was a tag title match. So what a way to go, to go in and go out right away. Yeah. But then now I have tag titles at AEW to go for, and maybe I’ll be Saucy or Cheesy or Garlic or Oregano, something like that.”
So then how did the opportunity with AEW come 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.”
What is Kris Statlander grateful for?
“My animals, my family and my job.”
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