Kris Statlander on Difference Between Real-Life Self & AEW Character, Mercedes Mone Motivated Her In Ways “I Could Never Explain,” & Winning the AEW Women’s World Title at AEW All Out 2025 Came At “Weird Time” For Her

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Kris Statlander as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Statlander’s thoughts about the difference between her real-life self and her current character in AEW.

“Normal, not wrestler on TV, me, I’m very shy. And when I’m meeting new people, I really don’t speak a lot because I don’t ever want to like interfere with the vibes of other people in a group. And I worry sometimes people might not think I’m friendly for that, but I always try to be friendly.

I like to keep to myself. I like to be kind of alone a lot of my time. But then at work — big, powerful, strong person. And, you know, I try to be more out there. I try to be bold and daring and scary and stuff like that. But I’m not a scary person. I’m not an intimidating person. I’m such a weird, weird, weird, weird, dork person. And I don’t have any shame. I’m not afraid to admit that.”

Statlander also gave her thoughts about how her alien character she had was closer to what her real personality is but she also felt like she was trying to do too many things at once with it.

“I think it’s taken me a long time to be like, ‘I don’t care if you think I’m weird. I don’t care if you think I’m cringey in my personal time, because that’s who I am. And I’m not going to apologize for acting weird on my own time.’

So I think that’s the biggest thing is that I tried, or I tried to kind of be everybody, be both of them at once when I was Alien Kris early on. Trying to be like, ‘No, I’m just a weird person and I’m going to do embarrassing things, but I’m an alien, so it’s fine. You understand that it’s different.’ But now trying to be a more serious, more of a bad-ass character, so to say. People don’t like when you do weird things. They’re like, ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’ And I’m like, well, I’m sorry, it’s just me. I can’t help it sometimes.”

Statlander also gave her thoughts about her in-ring chemistry with others during her matches and how Mercedes Mone has motivated her in ways that she could never explain.

“I feel so weird about this chemistry question — I’ve actually gotten this a few times — because I don’t ever really look for chemistry with someone. I look for myself being the best performer for my opponent. And I feel like kind of putting that pressure on myself to be that person for them kind of just helps me mesh with a lot more people than as opposed to being like, ‘Well, I’m just going to do whatever I need to do and then hope that everyone is on the same page.’ And I’m not saying I’m the only one that does it, but I feel like my approach is a little bit more like, ‘Let me be there for you.’ Yeah, I try to be [very giving]. And I feel like that kind of helps [in] general.

I know a lot of people are probably going to say Mercedes. And, you know, I love working with her. She’s motivated me in ways that I could never explain, because of just her talent and her passion for wrestling also. But I don’t know. I feel like I try my best to work well with a lot of people and to be someone that people want to work with. So that’s more rewarding to me than, you know, any title really could be. The fact that people want to work with me is very special.”

Statlander also gave her thoughts about her AEW Women’s World Championship victory over “Timeless” Toni Storm, Thekla, and Jamie Hayter at AEW All Out 2025 and how she felt winning the title came at a weird time for her.

“I guess I kind of agree. I feel like you shouldn’t always necessarily need to brand yourself as a champion in order to be worthy of having this memorable career, so to speak. I feel like actually winning the championship kind of came at a really weird time for me. It almost didn’t feel like it was the right time, because the way Toni Storm went about making the match was like, You, you, you, let’s go do it, and we’re like, okay, so it’s kind of like taking advantage of an opportunity. Meanwhile, I was still getting harassed by the Deathriders and trying to sneak my way out of dealing with them. And then the up and down situation with Willow, and then me and Harley were kind of a thing. It was like a really, really weird time where I was very unsure of what I wanted to do and what path I wanted to take. Now I’m in this opportunity to win this belt. I’ve never gotten a chance to win, and I haven’t wrestled four in years at this point, so it’s like, I’m not gonna not take the opportunity, just because in my mind, things are all over the place. But at the same time, it felt really weird. It was just kind of like, well, I guess we’re here, so okay, and now it’s just kind of been an uphill battle trying to cement myself and find myself, while also putting myself and showing everyone who I am as the World Champion. So it’s been a really odd time.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com 1 & 2, Fightful.com