Kris Statlander says she wasn’t sure if she was the one who deserved to beat Jade Cargill.
Kris Statlander had been sidelined with a torn ACL and lateral meniscus in her right leg since August 2022.
At AEW Double Or Nothing, Statlander made her return to the ring by defeating Jade Cargill to end her 60-0 undefeated streak to win the AEW TBS Championship.
Cargill was the inaugural TBS Champion and held the title for well over a year after winning the gold on the January 5, 2022 edition of AEW Dynamite.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, the new TBS Champion was asked to describe how she felt beating Jade Cargill. Noting that she wasn’t sure if she deserved to be the one to end Cargill’s streak, Statlander said:
“Very much what I’ve been saying, where I was nervous and I wasn’t sure if I was the one that deserved to be the one to do it. It’s not just because of how much they built her up.”
“She has such incredible star power, she has such a presence to her. People want to see her. I was putting pressure on myself, thinking like ‘How am I going to live up to the type of person and the type of star that she is.”
“She’s undefeated, she’s brought so many outside eyes to wrestling. She’s done so much, and it’s gonna take a while to realize that I don’t have to be the next Jade.”
“I just have to be Kris Statlander, and I’ve got to make my title reign be mine. I can still go out and do events and do things that she did, but I’m not gonna be Jade.”
Praising Cargill for being one of a kind and her incredible reign as TBS Champion, Statlander stated:
“No one’s gonna be Jade. Jade’s the first-ever TBS Champion, she’s the longest-reigning champion in AEW history, and I think those are two incredible accolades that no one else in the world is going to have.”
“It’s a lot of pressure about just proving that I am the one that was able to step up, and I can step up, and I will. Even though I’ve had to [miss time] because of being injured, I can step right back into the scene and be a champion that people deserve and that people want to see.”
“It’s been just about a week since I’ve been back, and I’ve already technically wrestled four matches, and I am so tired, but it’s everything that I’ve wanted it to be, and I’m just so thankful that everyone has trusted me.”
Transcription via Fightful
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