Cast your minds back to the summer of 2024. The AEW American Championship was a thing, Hologram debuted, and Bryan Danielson hadn’t been murdered in front of the entire world. It was a strange time, but it was also the time where Kris Statlander had arguably her most interesting character development yet, turning heel on Willow Nightingale and aligning herself with Stokely Hathaway. After their brutal war at All Out, Statlander decided that she was done being a heel, for some reason, and turned face again, for some reason. She had a pair of great matches with Mercedes Mone for the AEW TBS Championship, and despite always wanting to move forward, she has been spinning her wheels until very recently.

Her on/off friendship with Willow, combined with Willow being the only woman in AEW who seems to care about Marina Shafir holding the AEW World Championship in a briefcase all the time, has led to Statlander having a few interesting interactions with The Death Riders as of late. Wheeler Yuta, who Statlander has a long history with, has tried to sweettalk her, and even Jon Moxley has tried to give her some friendly advice, but the biggest development do date came at the end of this great four-way match to determine the number one entrant in the women’s Casino Gauntlet match at All In Texas.

Joining Statlander in the match was the aforementioned Willow, Thunder Rosa, and ROH Women’s World Champion Athena, who all played a part in this being one of the sleeper hits of the night for this week’s “AEW Dynamite.” It’s been said a million times over, but someone please tell Tony Khan that Athena needs to be on TV every week, like come on! Thunder Rosa, while having a few moments where she seemed to lose her place, brought a high octane energy that was nicely balanced with the power and strength of Willow and Statlander, who continued to show why they are one of the most interesting pairings in AEW.

Athena and Rosa were able to continue their feud from Ring of Honor, beating lumps out of each other and throwing themselves off the ring steps to the floor for the sheer love of the game, allowing the real story being told to get its moment in the sun towards the end of the match. The Death Riders aren’t really the type of group that scouts people, after all the clue is in their name, you ride or die with Moxley, so for them to actively get involved in Statlander’s match and help her win sets her up for something potentially very important later on down the line.

Right now, Statlander looks like the favorite to win the Casino Gauntlet, and considering that sets her up for either a trilogy match with Mercedes Mone, or first-time ever singles affair with “Timeless” Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s World Championship which she should have held by now, maybe the Death Riders aren’t so bad after all.

Written by Sam Palmer