Kris Statlander sat down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, California 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 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.”
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 a 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 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.”
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