A Mercedes Mone title match has officially been added to the Worlds End PPV.
This week’s episode of AEW Collision from the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC featured a singles match where Kris Statlander took on Penelope Ford. In an interview before the bout, Statlander called out Mone for a TBS Title rematch at the upcoming PPV.
After Statlander defeated Ford, the current champion appeared on the ramp. She accepted Kris’ challenge for the Worlds End match, claiming that she’ll defeat the New York native once again.
Kris Statlander unsuccessfully challenged Mone for the title at the Full Gear PPV last month. It was also the last show for Kamille’s association with the TBS Champion. The former NWA star ended her partnership with Mone on the following Dynamite and she has not been seen on AEW programming since then.
AEW Worlds End Updated PPV Card
The new title match is the 8th match officially confirmed for the upcoming show. Below is the updated AEW Worlds End match card:
Continental Classic Semi-Finals and Final
Dynamite Diamond Ring Match: MJF (c) vs. Adam Cole
AEW World Championship Fatal Four Way Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Orange Cassidy vs. “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Jay White
Tijuana Street Fight For AEW Women’s World Championship: Mariah May (c) vs. Thunder Rosa
AEW International Championship Match: Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
AEW TBS Championship Match: Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Kris Statlander
AEW Worlds End 2024 will be taking place on Saturday, December 28, from the Addition Financial Arena in Orlando Florida.
Mercedes Mone and Kris Statlander made a new record for Women’s matches in AEW at tonight’s Full Gear PPV from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Statlander challenged the former WWE star for the TBS Championship. She previously held the title for 174 days and lost the belt at Full Gear 2023 in a triple threat match where she wasn’t pinned.
Despite her best efforts, however, Kris was not able to dethrone Mone. The current champion won the match after biting her opponent’s leg and getting the pin afterward.
Mercedes Mone Breaks Another Record
The Women’s title match received praise from fans as one of the best in-ring encounters of the night but it wasn’t the only reason which made it a noteworthy bout.
Ending at 19 minutes 15 seconds, the match became the longest women’s match in the 5-year history of the company. The previous record was also held by Mone herself.
The former WWE champion had defeated Willow Nightingale in a hard-fought match at Double or Nothing in May. Mone won the TBS title in the match which ended at 18 minutes.
Mercedes Mone had broken her own previous record of the Forbidden Door 2024 match against Stephanie Vaquer at the time.
All the states clearly show that the Mandalorian star is proving to be a catalyst for big change in the women’s division in AEW. She’s helping provide them more opportunities to showcase their talent.
All Elite Wrestling has announced on X an exciting slate of matches for next week’s episode of Dynamite. In celebration of Warner Bros. Discovery Shark Week, AEW Dynamite Beach Break will occur on July 3 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
The event is expected to follow the aftermath of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, which occurs on June 30. On X, the company also shared that the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Men’s and Women’s Tournament will continue on the episode.
One of the featured matchups will have Jeff Jarrett taking on a mystery opponent in the tournament’s quarter-finals. The wrestling legend shared an emotional promo about his relationship with Owen and why he needs to win the Owen Hart Cup on the June 22 episode of AEW Collision. It’s unclear who Jarrett will face, but it’s possible fans will get a hint as the episode draws closer.
Another important matchup announced was that Willow Nightingale will finally get a chance at revenge against Kris Statlander in the semi-finals of the tournament. The former AEW TBS Champion was betrayed by Statlander and her former manager Stokely Hathaway at Double Or Nothing on May 25. Nightingale is expected to be extra motivated to win against Statlander and to become a two-time Owen Hart Cup Winner.
PAC Opponent For AEW Dynamite Beach Break To Be Determined
In addition to the two matches announced for next week’s episode, PAC will also be in action in the semi-finals of the men’s tournament. He defeated Claudio Castagnoli on the June 19 episode of Dynamite to move forward in the competition. Unfortunately, he will have to wait until Forbidden Door to find out who the opponent will be.
Bryan Danielson will take on Shingo Takagi in the quarter-finals at the upcoming pay-per-view. The matchup has the potential to be one of the best matches on the card, with both superstars having a hard-hitting style. However, the winner will have the challenging task of facing PAC three days later on the Dynamite episode.
The July 3 episode of Dynamite has the potential to be a great show. Fans will be sure to tune in to witness how the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Men’s and Women’s Tournament continues to develop.
Stokely Hathaway is in his element as a heel and he welcomes any creative type of heat he’s getting online after turning on Willow Nightingale.
Hathaway and Kris Statlander got sick of supporting Willow Nightingale, especially after she lost the TBS Women’s Championship to Mercedes Mone in one of the three main event matches of AEW Double or Nothing. Nightingale was super over as a babyface while Mone is finally easing into her heel identity and so will Stokely and Statlander.
AEW has advertised that we’ll hear more from Hathaway and Statlander on the forthcoming Dynamite, but Stokely heard quite a bit from fans after he and Statlander did Willow dirty at Double or Nothing.
Stokely took to X to share screenshots of some of the creative negative comments he’s gotten so far, including:
“I hope you got diarrhea for a month you f***ing traitor.”
“Count your days Milk Dud.”
“I know Darby used your head and a magnifying glass to light the flame-thrower.”
Also, some fans kept it simple with “F*** you, man,” “You b****,” and “Big Stoke, more like B**** Stoke.” He also added another one in the replies that said “I hope you done like Darby and hit by a bus.”
The former Sasha Banks made her AEW debut at Double or Nothing and left the MGM Grand Arena as a champion.
Mercedes Mone faced Willow Nightingale for the AEW TBS Title at Double or Nothing. Their match was the first of three main event matches for the night.
After a competitive match, Mercedes executed the Mone Maker and secured a clean win, marking her in-ring debut for AEW and making her the new TBS Champion.
Mercedes and Nightingale entered the match with history. They previously faced off in NJPW, where Mercedes suffered an ankle injury that cost her the NJPW Strong Women’s Title and led to nearly a year on the sidelines.
Mercedes had a notable entrance for her match. A drum line accompanied her to the ring, adding to the moment as they kept pace with her CEO music.
The CEO Mercedes Moné makes her AEW in-ring debut as she looks to capture TBS gold & revenge!
This victory established Mercedes in AEW, setting the stage for her future in the company. Excalibur sang her praises after the win, saying that Mercedes will be tough to beat with a finisher like the Mone Maker.
After the match, Kris Statlander turned on Willow, hit her, and ripped off her friendship bracelet, adding insult to injury. Stokely Hathaway approved of this turn, marking a separation with Nightingale.
WWE Women’s Champion Bayley has expressed her interest in facing AEW wrestler, Kris Statlander.
‘The Role Model’ has faced plenty of talented wrestlers over the last decade and she now has named the former TBS Champion for a potential match. Bayley recently spoke to Bernard Colas of Le10Sport and was asked about a wrestler outside of WWE whom she wanted to face. ‘The Role Model’ named AEW star Kris Statlander as her potential opponent in the future. She went on to state that Statlander reminds her a lot of the former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley as she she is “so athletic.” Bayley said:
“I really like Kris Statlander. I think she’s just freaking so athletic. She kind of reminds me of like Rhea Ripley. You know or like it seems like she can do everything so I’d be interested to get in the ring someday.”
Kris Statlander competed only once in WWE in April 2019. She was introduced as Kristen alongside her tag team partner Karissa (now known as Elekra Lopez) and faced then-Women’s Tag Team Champions The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) in a losing effort. Following a brief run on the independent circuit, Kris Statlander made a move to AEW in November 2019 and went on to capture the TBS Championship last year.
WWE have started to acknowledge the happenings and bring in wrestlers from other promotions. In 2020, WWE brought in then-IMPACT Knockouts Champion Mickie James for that year’s Women’s Royal Rumble. This year TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace was also able to compete in the match. Recently, Shayna Baszler also competed at ‘GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport X’ last April to face Masha Slamovich. Bayley and Kris Statlander could face each other if either of them is allowed to walk through the Forbidden Door.
We will have to wait and see if a match between Bayley and Kris Statlander ever takes place. Last year, AEW President Tony Khan seemingly liked the idea of working with WWE. Read more below:
A mixture of injuries and a lack of creative direction is keeping some stars of All Elite Wrestling away, it has been claimed.
AEW is home to a wide array of talent under a large roster, one that some fans believe is too large.
With limited weekly programming and no on-demand service (such as the WWE Network,) many wrestlers appear solely on AEW Dark or Dark: Elevation, or are seldom used.
Injuries
For many AEW stars, injuries are to blame for them missing weekly programming on TBS and TNT.
Fightful Select reports that Hikaru Shida is in her native Japan at this time and is dealing with a finger injury, but worked the recent Jericho Cruise, performing in a couple of matches.
Kris Statlander’s ACL injury continues to keep her away from the ring, though she has been backstage at several AEW shows in recent months, including the Lexington and Toronto shows.
After having knee surgery last May, Fightful were told that Leyla Hirsch is “slowly getting there,” and it has been said that she recently resumed in-ring training.
Missing
Not everyone who has been absent from AEW programming as of late is down with an injury.
In their report, Fightful notes that Scorpio Sky has been cleared to wrestle for months, after dealing with an injury last Summer.
While Sky was at the recent Impact Wrestling No Surrender event, the former TNT Champion hasn’t attended many AEW shows as of late.
Sky has several years left on his AEW deal, as he said in late 2021 that he signed a five-year extension.
Fightful was told that Miro is healthy and ready to go, but haven’t heard an update on creative discussions between he and All Elite Wrestling.
Miro has several years left on his contract after signing a four-year extension a year or so ago.
The former TNT Champion and three-time WWE United States Champion has had one match for AEW over the past eight months.
Kris Statlander has undergone knee surgery that will keep her out of action for the remainder of the year. Statlander was climbing the ranks in AEW’s Women’s division before sustaining an injury at the August 5th AEW Dark tapings. The company confirmed her injury on the August 10th edition of Dynamite.
Statlander reached the #2 spot in the rankings, which put her within striking distance of a title match. Unfortunately, she won’t be wrestling again any time soon.
On August 11th, she took to social media to address the news of her injury.
“Welp. One knee fixed, one to go. After the first knee injury I came back stronger and better than ever so it’s all over for you all when I come back from this one. I’m sorry to let you all done once again. I’ll be back bigger, more powerful, and more than a woman.”
Kris Statlander Injury Update
Statlander underwent knee surgery earlier today, based on her posts on social media. This is her second major knee injury since joined AEW.
I must’ve been thinking of you when I got injured, because you make my knees weak. Xoxo pic.twitter.com/MlX4UhYMwY
AEW had been battling the injury bug pretty badly over the last few months. As soon as one star would come back, another would go down in its place. Most recently the promotion lost two of their top women’s division stars, as Kris Statlander tore her ACL and women’s champion Thunder announced that she was battling a severe back injury. In La Mera Mera’s absence an interim women’s champion will be crowned at ALL OUT.
One of the women competing for the interim championship will be Rosa’s ThunderStorm tag partner, Toni Storm. However, Storm may have just missed out on missing some action as she recent underwent dental surgery. She shared a photo on her Instagram Stories of her recovering at home, assuring fans that she will be back on AEW Dynamite this Wednesday.
In case you forgot…one of AEW’s biggest superstars is in fact, a dentist. Britt Baker saw Storm’s post and took the opportunity to weigh-in with her expertise.
Baker writes, “Toni should probably stay home and rest, but I know a great dentist if any post-op problems arise.”
At ALL OUT Storm will be competing against Jamie Hayter, Hikaru Shida, and Britt Baker, but ahead of that four-way she’ll team up with Shida to battle Hayter and Baker on this Wednesday’s go-home edition of Dynamite.
AEW star Kris Statlander joined the ever-growing injury list when she suffered a leg injury during the AEW Dark tapings on August 5.
The female star provided some updates on her health on the most recent episode of AEW Road To. She revealed that she has completely torn her ACL:
“After getting an MRI, I have a completely torn ACL. My lateral meniscus is torn, and there is lateral impaction fractures in my tibial and femoral heads. So just tiny little cracks that are more of a bruise, but still, technically a broken leg.”
Speaking about her recovery, Kris Statlander noted that it’ll be six to eight months before she gets cleared to compete again:
“So recovery time, it’s about six-to-eight months post-operation. Once we got the MRI, we were hoping it was just a meniscus tear. That would have either been a few weeks to three months, at most. But now that we know the ACL is completely torn, that’s the one you don’t want to get, children.”
The timing of the injury is unfortunate for Statlander as she was gaining momentum in AEW before that. She has reached the #2 spot in the ranking and was making a strong case for a shot at the women’s title.
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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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 Cargill 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’s Feud With Red Velvet
Kris has been in a feud with Red Velvet who she has a long history with. Prior to Kris’ recent character change, she teamed with Red Velvet and Leyla Hirsch a few times. Leyla would eventually turn on Kris and Velvet, which led to Statlander’s character change. When Hikaru Shida needed to be replaced in the Women’s Owen Hart tournament, Statlander took her place and defeated Red Velvet to advance. They also faced off on the June 10 edition of AEW Rampage where Statlander once again defeated Velvet.
Kris Statlander commented on the possibility of her feud with Red Velvet continuing despite the history of their friendship.
Stalander said, “Uh, it might. If it is, I am not complaining because she’s small and she’s very easy to throw. And you know, when we were friends I loved her to death and you know, everyone goes their separate ways sometimes friends don’t last forever, unfortunately. But I don’t mind if she’s someone that I have to see all the time.”
Statlander On Slapping The Back Of Stokely Hathaway’s Head
Statlander recently slapped Jade Cargill’s publicist Stokely Hathaway on the June 17 edition of Rampage. Following Willow Nightingale’s match with Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship, Kris Statlander came out to help rescue Willow and Athena from the beatdown that they were receiving from Jade and The Baddies (Kiera Hogan and Red Velvet). While running down to the ring, Statlander slapped Stokely on the back of the head before getting into the ring.
Kris Statlander slapping the shit out of Stokely Hathaway on her way down to the ring was fucking hilarious hahahah #AEWRampagepic.twitter.com/KrZ8z63uis
Statlander had the following to say about slapping Stokely, “I mean, I saw him as I was getting ready to run out. I saw him walking down there. And I was like, ‘Oh, he deserves it because he’s annoying that he had it coming.’ So, I guess you can say, sort of planned it as in like, we all want to. But, just when the opportunity arrives. Oh, it was gonna happen for sure.”
Statlander On Working With Willow Nightingale
Statlander and Athena said on the June 22 that they had Willow Nightingale in their corner when taking on Jade and The Baddies. Willow has been a big crowd favorite and has received great reactions during her AEW appearances. Willow took on Mercedes Martinez at ROH Supercard of Honor for the Interim ROH Women’s Championship back in April. Since they, Willow has been fighting off Jade and The Baddies.
Statlander spoke about the possibility of Willow joining her and Athena and Willow being on TV more.
“I hope so considering that we said that we had her on our side. So, it’d be great if she were able to join us. So yeah, I really hope that you know if there ever comes a time to do maybe we gotta take down Jade and The Baddies all together as a group. I do hope that she’s one that’s on our side. She’s someone that I’ve known for a very long time, way before AEW, so I love working with her,” Statlander commented.
The Possibility Of Kris Statlander Vs Jade Cargill
Kris Statlander vs Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship is a match that has been long hyped up. Many believe that Kris Statlander may be the first person to defeat Jade Cargill, and that she will be the one to take the belt away from Jade. Especially during her recent feud with Jade and The Baddies, many believes that the booking around the TBS Championship may be working towards having Kris finally challenge Jade. These two have never faced each other one on one.
When asked about the possibility of facing Jade and what fans could expect from the match, Kris said, “I’m gonna say you’re gonna see Jade’s toughest challenge ever. Yet. Ever, maybe, we’ll see. But um, I appreciate everyone that’s supporting the idea of me being the first one to beat her. That would be really cool, but we gotta get the match booked first. So don’t don’t get your hopes up until we see that graphic. Okay. That’s all I’m gonna say is, if it happens, it happens if it doesn’t. Don’t get your panties in a twist over it. Life goes on. I’ll get something one day, maybe one day will be my time to shine, but if not.”
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AEW has revealed more footage from their upcoming video game ‘AEW: Fight Forever‘ which is rumored to release later this year.
AEW: Fight Forever will be the promotion’s first console video game, and the third game overall, following on from mobile titles ‘AEW Elite GM‘ and ‘AEW Casino: Double or Nothing.‘
On social media, the official AEW Games account shared development footage, confirming that Nyla Rose and Kris Statlander will be in the game as playable characters.
This will mark both women’s first appearance in any console video game.
AEW Referee Aubrey Edwards was also confirmed in the videos, officiating a match between the two.
The AEW Games account also confirmed that AEW: Fight Forever will also be available on PC.
The audience character models have also been updated as confirmed by the AEW Games division.
Initially reported as a 2023 title, its since been noted that AEW plans on releasing the game this year, possibly as soon as September.
In June 2021, it was reported that AEW was operating ‘in the red’ due to an “eight-figure investment” (at least $10 million) into their games department.
Kris Statlander has four AEW stars in her sights and some of them are familiar foes.
Statlander knows a thing or two about scrapping with AEW’s top female wrestlers. She’s gone toe-to-toe with the likes of current AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida, and Nyla Rose.
For 2022, Statlander has a couple of rematches in mind.
Kris Statlander Lists Potential Opponents
Kris Statlander has mixed it up with the likes of Jamie Hayter and Ruby Soho but she told Chris Denker on Into The Danger Zone that she’s eyeing rematches. She’s also got two other names on her radar.
“I wanna wrestle Serena Deeb. I’ve wrestled Thunder Rosa on the indies but I haven’t in AEW.
“I really just wanna wrestle them all but Jamie Hayter and I, we had a singles match on the Jericho Cruise and I would love to do that on Dynamite.
“It was a great match. It was so fun. Did I win? No, her and Britt cheated so I lost that one. So, we gotta do one that actually counts.
“I just wrestled Ruby and I lost to her but I would love to [wrestle her again].”
The match with Ruby took place in the TBS Title tournament. With the defeat, Statlander has missed out on her chance of becoming the inaugural TBS Champion.
Ruby and Jade Cargill will do battle for that honor on the Jan. 5 episode of Dynamite. This will be Dynamite’s debut on TBS.
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Kris Statlander was the latest wrestler in the women’s division to step up to challenge Britt Baker for the AEW Women’s Title.
It happened at the AEW All Out pay-per-view event in Chicago, IL at the NOW Arena. The match saw both ladies get an equal amount of offense in and seemed to go through quick spots early. They nearly botched a suplex off the top rope.
Baker hit the Pittsburgh Sunrise then the stomp for a near fall. Baker won with the locked jaw.
Statlander had been out of action for nearly 10 months thanks to a knee injury, but returned this past April. To get this title shot, she racked up a sixteen-match winning streak in AEW in singles matches.
Baker won the title at the Double or Nothing PPV on May 30, where she ended Hikaru Shida’s title reign of over a year.
Many fans were hoping to see Baker wrestle Thunder Rosa at this show, but they will have to wait until 2022 to see the much-anticipated rematch.
It was recently reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the plan is to build up for a major match in early 2022 although it was not said if this will be on pay-per-view or on a special episode of Dynamite.
Their first match took place a few months ago during the bloody unsanctioned main event match on an episode of Dynamite.
Vicious Fisherman's Neckbreaker from the top by @RealBrittBaker.
Kris Statlander tore her ACL during a tag match on AEW Dynamite back in June. At the time, the alien from the Andromeda galaxy had become one of the top-ranked competitors in her division. She spoke to the Wrestling Inc Daily podcast recently and gave an update on her condition. Unfortunately, Statlander believes she’ll be out of action for another 8 months or so.
“I’m doing pretty good. I think from what I’ve heard overall is that I might be a little bit ahead of others where I’m at right now, but I still have a real long way to go before I can re-debut basically and get back in the ring before I’m debuting again obviously, and I’m going to want to be training a little bit before,” Statlander said. “So I’ll be able to get in the ring before you’ll see me back on TV. It could be another eight months or so.”
Statlander also spoke about her injury which occurred during a suicide dive attempt. She was teaming with Hikaru Shida and taking on Nyla Rose and Penelope Ford.
“I just did a suicide dive, and the way I landed, I guess, was not perfectly right. You can actually see the dive on TV when I heard it, but all you see is me quickly grab my leg when I go down, and then the camera’s off of me. But it doesn’t even look like I did anything super insane, or it doesn’t look very noticeable. ‘Oh, she messed up her leg there.’ You cannot tell at all. So I had no idea what happened. I just kind of felt a little ‘pfft’ in my leg. It didn’t even hurt that bad either. I was just like, ‘oh boy.'”
Statlander had just defeated Penelope Ford in singles competition at the Double or Nothing PPV the previous month before her injury. She unsuccessfully challenged Nyla Rose for the title at the Revolution PPV in February as well.
Kris Statlander is slated to undergo the knife this week.
The AEW star first revealed that she suffered an ACL tear back in June in a post on social media. However, at the time, she didn’t mention when the surgery would actually take place.
That has changed. Statlander took to her official Twitter account where she noted that she’ll be getting the surgery done on Tuesday. She wrote the following:
“Tomorrow is surgery day and I’m either going to spend my night watching #AEWDark or sleeping. Luckily I’ll be entertained Wednesday as well on my first day of recovery knowing #AEWDynamite is LIVE Wednesday at 8/7c pn TNT. Who’s watching with me?”
We wish her a speedy recovery. She was last seen in action back on the June 10th episode of AEW Dynamite when she teamed with Hikaru Shida to take on Nyla Rose & Penelope Ford. The injury happened when she did a dive onto Kip Sabian.
Clearly, there’s no word yet on when fans can expect to see Statlander back in action by making a return from injury. Before the setback, she had been on the rise and played a role as one of the regulars in the AEW women’s division.
In fact, she won the AEW Women’s Title at AEW Revolution pay-per-view event in February but fell short.
Despite being sidelined and not working a match in over one month, Statlander is still the number four ranked competitor in the official AEW women’s rankings.
Kris Statlander will be out of action for an extended period of time.
“The Galaxy’s Greatest Alien” tore her ACL in her match last week on AEW Dynamite. Statlander was teaming with AEW Women’s Champion, Hikaru Shida, in a bout against Penelope Ford & Nyla Rose.
She confirmed on social media that she tore her ACL while diving onto Kip Sabian during the match. Statlander also confirmed the injury will require surgery.
Statlander is currently ranked #2 in the AEW Women’s division. She’s twice challenged unsuccessfully for the title, once against Riho and again against Nyla Rose. Her record in 2020 is 5-7 and she is 8-9 overall in her AEW career.
Statlander was also a guest recently on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. During the discussion, she spoke about how her alien gimmick came to be.
“I kind of feel like in a weird way it’s a weird play on how I’ve always been perceived in life. No one really cared to get to know me until I had something interesting to say or I had something to offer that interests them and that’s kind of like what aliens are in a way. So, I was just kind of like ‘why not just play up how odd I am?”
Kris Statlander is currently ranked #2 in the AEW Women’s division rankings. She was this week’s guest on the AEW Unrestricted Podcast with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards. Amongst other topics, Statlander talked about how she became the “Galaxy’s Greatest Alien.”
“When I first started wrestling, I went by the name Liza Viero,” she said on the show.
“I was getting work and I was able to do stuff, it just wasn’t really like a character that was good.”
She continued to talk about how the alien gimmick is a bit of a play on how others have perceived her throughout her life.
“I’m a little bit weirder than people realize,” she continued. “I know I’m a little bit weirder and I never really fit in with any specific group of people. When I was in school, high school and everything, it was kind of like no one really wants to get to know you until they do start to get to know you and then they realize you’re so interesting and you have so much more to offer than what you just lead people to believe.”
“In a way, it’s almost like you feel alienated from everybody and I know that’s a weird play on words.”
“No one wants to believe aliens are real until somebody can prove something about it. No one cares to look into it more until there are facts to be known or things to research.”
“I kind of feel like in a weird way it’s a weird play on how I’ve always been perceived in life. No one really cared to get to know me until I had something interesting to say or I had something to offer that interests them and that’s kind of like what aliens are in a way. So, I was just kind of like ‘why not just play up how odd I am?”
AEW has added another match to this Sunday’s Revolution PPV in Chicago. The promotion recently confirmed several matches for the show including an AEW Women’s World Championship match pitting champion Nyla Rose against Kris Statlander.
BREAKING NEWS A new match has been added to #AEWRevolution#AEW Women's World Championship Match@callmekrisstat vs. @nylarosebeast (c) Who is leaving Chicago with the championship held high?
Recently on Dynamite, Statlander and Big Swole confronted Nyla Rose during an interview segment. Rose defeated Riho to win the AEW Women’s World Championship on the February 12th, 2020 card.
Kris Statlander quickly shot up the rankings in AEW’s women’s division. She dropped a title match to Riho on the most recent edition of Dynamite, however. Statlander recently took part in an interview with Alicia Atout and spoke about signing with AEW.
“There’s a lot of thoughts going through my mind because the whole thing with WWE was interested in me also,” Statlander said. “There’s a lot of stress with me because I didn’t know what I was going to do, I didn’t know what was the right choice.”
“You would think it’s a dream come true for anybody to be offered a contract but for me getting signed was never a legit goal of mine in wrestling,” she continued. Statlander would continue to say she was nervous and stressed about the decision but everything has worked out great in AEW so far.
“I am thoroughly enjoying all my time I’ve been with AEW and all the opportunities they have given me so far and I have no regrets about it,” Statlander stated.
AEW has announced two new additions to their Women’s division with the signing of Big Swole and Kris Statlander. The company revealed the news via a couple of posts from their Twitter account. Both these stars have previously made appearances for the company.
Big Swole is All Elite
Big Swole first made her AEW debut during the All Out event back in August. She competed in the Casino Battle Royal during the show and has made several AEW Dark appearances recently.
Swole has also made several appearances for WWE in the past. The female star who is married to WWE’s Cedric Alexander competed as an enhancement talent in a match against Nia Jax during a Raw episode in 2016.
She competed in the second Mae Young Classic tournament in 2018 as well, where she battled against Zeuxis in the first round of the tournament in a losing effort.
Statlander, on the other hand, made her first AEW appearance during the November 13th taping of AEW Dark and she has made a couple of Dynamite appearances since then.
The new AEW star made her pro wrestling debut in 2017 and she has been working in the independent circuit ever since.
She also made a SmackDown appearance earlier this year where she competed in a tag team match and got squashed by the then-WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The IIconics.
Kris Statlander recently made her debut on All Elite Wrestling’s Dynamite where she teamed up with Hikaru Shida against Bea Priestly and Emi Sakura.
But before she would appear for AEW, Statlander was negotiating with WWE. She was close to a deal with them but hadn’t sent her a contract, and then AEW booked her.
This comes from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter which says that WWE was under the impression that Kris would start with them in January, but ended up working with AEW.
The report says that both WWE and AEW want to work with her, and now that Statlander has made two appearances for AEW, it’s likely she would sign up with them.
“Regarding Kris Statlander, it looks like she’ll be signing here. She and WWE were close to a deal but they had not sent a contract and then AEW booked her. WWE was under the impression she was coming in January and both sides want her. Her working here the last few weeks, and we know AEW is looking to sign her as well, would indicate AEW is the likely final destination.”
Statlander has worked in the wrestling industry for only over two years now and has worked in many independent promotions like SHIMMER, Shine, WrestlePro, Beyond Wrestling to name a few. Apart from the one appearance for AEW mentioned above, she has also worked a match on AEW Dark episode 7 where she teamed up with Big Swole in a losing effort against Dr. Britt Baker DMD & Riho.