Kris Statlander Reflects On Having To Delay Knee Surgery Due To COVID

Kris Statlander suffered a high-grade ACL tear in June 2022, putting her out of action until March 2021 when she returned during Arcade Anarchy. 

Statlander suffered the injury during a tag team match against Nyla Rose & Penelope Ford when she was teaming with Hikaru Shida. 

Speaking to Chris Denker on Into The Danger Zone, Statlander reflected on the injury and the time she missed. 

“A lot of negative thoughts,” she said when asked what was going through her head during her time away. “I’m a bit of a psycho and one of the first things that I was thinking was, ‘how am I going to workout now?’ Not even ‘how am I going to get back to wrestling?’ It was during COVID, it was the very height of COVID, and it was like, ‘How am I going to get help? How am I going to do anything?’ It was such a nightmare. Usually, it’s like, go in, get the MRI, get surgery right away. It took almost two months for me to get my surgery. It was a nightmare and so frustrating, the whole process of it, on top of being stuck in the house because of COVID. You can’t go out and do anything. It was a very dark time for me. There was like four months straight where I cried every single day like, ‘what am I even doing this for? What is happening?’ Then I got to come back and I go, ‘I’m good.’ It was a struggle. I would never wish that upon anybody.”

Upon returning, Statlander quickly worked her way into an AEW Women’s Championship match against Britt Baker at AEW All Out 2021. 

Speaking on her overall experience at AEW, Statlander said, “It is so much fun. It doesn’t ever feel like, in my experience, a competition with anybody else. We’re all doing our best and trying to put out the best product we can. It’s not to not have that competition with it. You have people there and you evolve through the greater good. It’s a good thing. We’re all just doing it for the better of everything else.”

On television, Statlander most recently defeated Jamie Hayter at AEW Holiday Bash. She is currently aligned with the Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuckie T, & Trent). 

You can find results from past episodes of AEW television at Fightful’s results section. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.