Statlander suffered two major knee injuries before embarking on the run she’s currently on.
Present day, Kris Statlander is paired with Stokely Hathaway on AEW programming as the two opted to side against Willow Nightingale. Next up on the docket for Statlander is the Owen Hart Cup tournament.
She spoke about that and more while chatting with Aubrey Edwards and Will Washington on AEW Unrestricted. As their conversation rolled on, Statlander stated that she’s ‘unofficially’ a member of AEW’s medical team. She gives advice to talents who are bouncing back from knee and/or leg injuries and how to prepare for their comeback seeing as how she’s recovered from two major knee injuries.
A lot of injuries are mental than they are physical, but I am at least very thankful that even though I hated having to blow out both my knees and recover from them, I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me about their knee and leg injuries and I’m just happy to be someone that’s there to kind of walk them through it and give them some advice, just let them know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel because I didn’t believe that light was there for a while but I got through it, here I am. It’s so easy to get negative and kind of just be like, ‘I’m done with wrestling’ because this is the worst feeling that I’ve ever had in the world. So it’s nice to, you know, be a mental advocate I guess but also kind of a physical one because I’m unofficially a part of the medical team with helping other people rehab from their injuries in the ring and it’s nice because it’s kind of my fault that — not my fault but I was kind of the prototype in a way for the recovery process and the return to sport, because of my constantly showing up to work even when I didn’t have to. Then wanting to rehab with them and wanting to find good steps and good feedback with the medical team about, ‘Hey, this might be too much at this point’ and, ‘Hey, I think we can start progressing a little bit more.’ It’s just been nice to know that I’ve been able to help out in other ways, besides just what’s on-screen.
It definitely is (rewarding), especially since I am, technically, a licensed massage therapist and I don’t practice because I wouldn’t want people to just randomly want a massage, you know? That’s weird. But it’s nice to still have some sort of medical aspect a part of my work, even though I had to kind of go through injuries and figure it out and then help everyone else figure it out and I feel like now, everyone’s feeling a lot more prepared once they come back from their injuries so it’s nice to say that I was kind of the groundwork for that.
To go along with Statlander’s new on-screen presentation, she has a new entrance that comes with a silhouette at the beginning of it.
Statlander did not know that was going to be part of the entrance and it was not until the day of that she heard the new music and video wall.
No (I didn’t know I was getting a silhouette in my new entrance). I watched it back after my match and I was like, ‘Oh! This is pretty cool’ or they had told me about it and I didn’t hear the song until that day, I didn’t see the video until that day. I didn’t know anything that was going on. I remember I was watching and I was like, ‘If I didn’t have this, I’d be pissed. I’d be so jealous.’ So I’m glad that it’s me that gets it.
Thus far, Statlander, Willow Nightingale and Mariah May are set for the Owen Hart Cup tournament. The winner will challenge for the AEW Women’s World Championship at All In.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit AEW Unrestricted with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
