AEW star Kris Statlander spoke with SEScoops correspondent Jaychele Nicole this week.
Since AEW Double Or Nothing, we have seen Statlander pair up with Athena and sometimes other women in the division to take on Jade Cargull and The Baddies. Kris Statlander has long been a crowd favorite. Particularly in her Owen Hart Tournament match with Ruby Soho, Statlander was able to turn the crowd around and gain overwhelming support during the match.
Kris Statlander On Mixed Tag Team & Intergender Matches
On the January 19 edition of AEW Dynamite, we saw Kris Statlander pair up with Orange Cassidy to take on Adam Cole and Dr. Britt Baker DMD in a mixed tag team match. This was one of the few mixed tag team matches that we have seen in AEW.
Kris Statlander spoke with Jaychele Nicole about the possibility of there being more mixed tag team matches in AEW and her desire to participate in them.
Statlander said, “Yeah, absolutely. I would love to. If anyone has been following my career since before AEW, they knew that at one point, the majority of my matches were intergender matches. So, I know that I can hang with the guys and be better than them. And I’m bigger than some not going to be humble about it. I’m bigger than some of the guys. Not necessarily on the roster. But you know, just in general. And, like, it’s a lot of what made me so different. And it’s like, if I didn’t have all those intergender matches, it wouldn’t have got me to the level that I’m at today.
So, as much as some people like don’t like it because of the ‘domestic violence’ it kind of ‘insinuates’. It’s like we’re wrestlers. If I take a suplex from Nyla versus I take a suplex from Orange Cassidy, it’s still a suplex, like it’s still wrestling. That’s kind of like people have to remember, like, we’re trained professional wrestlers. Most of the time when we’re in training we’re training with more guys than we are girls, unless you find an all girls wrestling school, which you most likely won’t. This just got very intergender preachy and I apologize, but yes, I would love to participate and do more mixed tag and intergender maybe, but that’s probably not gonna happen. Yeah, intergender probably not.”
Kris Statlander had participated in many intergender matches prior to joining AEW. She has had matches with the likes of John Silver, Orange Cassidy, Nick Gage, MJF and many others.
Kris Statlander’s ‘More Than A Woman Branding’
Statlander has recently transitioned to brand herself as ‘More Than A Woman.’ During her feud with Leyla Hirsch, Kris debuted new music, new hair, and a new titantron. Her merchandise now describes her as ‘More Than A Woman.’ At the beginning of her matches, Kris signs ‘More Than A Woman’ in American Sign Language.
When asked about where the ‘More Than A Woman’ branding came from, Stalander had this to say, “It came from the song. Not the Aliyah one, the Bee Gees one. Yeah, I had the Bee Gees version of the more than a woman song as my entrance on the Indies for a while because it was just so different. And it was just so fun. And it was one of those like, everyone knew it. Just got a crowd in a good mood before a match and stuff. Like it’s like just one of those, like, feel good songs.
And then, when I was doing the alien thing, still, I would be like, ‘Oh, she’s more than a woman because she’s an alien.’ And now it’s more than a woman leaves what I am up to interpretation by the audience now. So, it’s kind of like I can be whatever you want to be. Or whatever, however you want to perceive me is whatever you want, because being more than a woman as being more than what meets the eye and stuff like that. So I took it from the song, but then I made it more deep than it is.”
Kris Statlander’s Use of ASL
Statlander also commented about the reasoning behind her using ASL to communicate her ‘More Than A Woman’ message before her matches.
“I think it was something that I wanted to do something different, I don’t actually know anyone that’s deaf. I don’t have a reason to know ASL. Once I started doing it, some people were raising questions about do I have a reason to use it in my life? And I don’t, I just thought it was something useful to learn. It’s kind of an underappreciated language. So, I figured, why not try something different? And it seems to be getting a really good reaction. I’m not fluent in sign language. But I could do a basic sentence like, ‘Do you want water? Are you hungry? My name is Kris.’ Like, I can do all that stuff.
But, I originally got the idea to do some side language because on the Indies, sometimes if I was a bad guy, I would do like an F and a U. So, I’d say FU to my opponent and like no one knew what it meant, butI did and it was funny to me. So, sometimes I would do that. And that’s kind of where I got the idea to find a way to incorporate sign language a little bit more just because it’s so different. And especially like if there is a deaf person watching TV, and they actually see something like that instead of just having to read the subtitles all the time. So, you can actually like focus on the action for a moment. I think it’s a cool little way to reach out to that underserved community,” she said.
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