Nearly three weeks ago, Kris Statlander shocked All Elite Wrestling fans when she answered Jade Cargill’s open challenge at AEW: Double or Nothing for a TBS Championship match. The former space alien had been on the shelf for about eleven months recovering from her second ACL injury in three years, and for her to return and challenge Cargill caught many by surprise. A few minutes after accepting Cargill’s offer, Statlander had the undefeated champion on her back, looking at the lights as she picked up the victory.
In a Haus of Wrestling exclusive interview, Statlander opened up about when she found out she would win the TBS title, and what kind of a TBS Champion she hopes to be.
“There were talks about it a few months before I fully returned but I always never believe that things are going to happen until I walk out there, and it happened,” she noted. “So, I was kind of just like, even the night before, I was like, ‘We’ll see if this happens because things can change.’ But that’s how it is, and it wasn’t that I don’t trust people, it’s just that, you know, things happen so much, things need to be changed.
“It’s more just you don’t want to set yourself up for disappointment, and it wasn’t anything like, ‘Oh, we’re not sure if you’re the one that’s going to do it.’ It was more just, ‘We’ll see what the definitive plans are when we get there.’ I do remember when I first heard the idea, I was kind of like, ‘Okay if that’s what you want. I’m not gonna stop you.’
“It was very, it was a very, very cool thing to know that they, a lot of people, trusted me to be that one, and I just hope, in that moment, that I did return and that everything I continue to do while I have the title lives up to and exceeds expectations.”
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