Nothing has come easy for Kris Statlander during her now six years with AEW. Despite being the first woman to have reigns as AEW TBS and AEW Women’s World Champion, Statlander has also had to overcome plenty of adversity, most notably two different ACL injuries that kept her out of action for most of 2020 and most of 2022. That adversity has transitioned over to kayfabe as well, largely thanks to her on again, off again friendship with Willow Nightingale.

In an interview with “TMZSports,” Statlander got a bit emotional discussing how all of these things had affected her, in particular revealing the difficulty of having to overcome the injury and then reset as both a performer and as a character.

“I feel like…I’ve just been a constant, up and down wave of trying to figure out who I am, and trying to tell people who I am,” Statlander said. “And just being kind of lost in myself that I haven’t really been able to sit down and get the chance and explain to a lot of people like ‘This is who I am. This is who I need.’ And then, you know, I fortunately got a very…due to Toni Storm being a little radical and out there, she’s like ‘You, you you, title match.’ And we’re like ‘Okay, great. I’ll take advantage of this opportunity.’ 

“Meanwhile, I was in the middle of trying to find myself. Here I am with the championship out of that. People still don’t know how they feel about me cause I’m not sure how I feel about myself. And Toni Storm, who’s so sure of herself, Mercedes Mone, who’s so sure of herself, and I’m still over here trying to ‘No guys, I’m really good at this. And I promise I’m worthy of this.’ It’s just been very tough for me to resonate with the fans again.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “TMZ Sports” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription