Kris Statlander feels the pressure.
On the January 8 edition of AEW Dynamite, Kris Ststlander put herself right back in the title picture, as she defeated Toni Storm and Willow Nightingale to earn the number one spot in the upcoming Women's Casino Gauntlet.
If Statlander is able to win the Casino Gauntlet match, she'll earn a shot at the AEW Women's World Championship at Grand Slam: Australia in February.
The final quarter of 2024 was full of title opportunities for Statlander, as she challenged for Mercedes Mone's TBS Championship on two seperate occasions. While speaking to Renee Paquette on a new episode of Close Up, Statlander talked about the pressure of being in big matches and how she feels like she needs to do something to prove that she deserves her spot at the top of the AEW women's division.
“I feel the pressure. I feel satisfaction with knowing that I know what I’m doing and then I feel the pressure like, ‘Oh my god, now everyone wants more of this.’ Now I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m tired.’ But, I lost twice to Mercedes now. If there’s a chance that I go for her again, am I going to — how do I step up my game even more for a third time if that were to happen. It’s a never ending cycle of constant pressure but I think I do pretty well under pressure and I have such a desire to prove people wrong, even if no one is doubting me. I have this need to prove, maybe even to myself, that I’m deserving of the spot I’m in and that everything I’ve done up to this point is worth it and that I haven’t wasted any of my time. I feel like I’ve been thankfully far removed from my injuries at this point, but I do feel like I lost so much time because of my injuries and it just puts you in such a bad mental place. I see how injuries can affect people in negative and positive ways, some people really let the negativity get to them and they lose passion and interest and it’s disheartening to see because — I don’t like to like put myself in a position where I’m like, ‘Oh, I prevailed where other people failed.’ I was just so enraged at the circumstances that I was given by destiny if you will that I had to always have a constant like, ‘I will never let this happen to me again, I will do everything I can to be stronger than this, be stronger than any injury that’s ever happened to me.’ It’s hard to maintain that motivation and that passion when everything hurts all the time. It’s so hard.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Statlander talked about wanting to reconcile with Willow Nightingale and Best Friends in 2025. Check out her full comments by clicking here.
If you missed anything from Wednesday's episode of AEW Dynamite, check out Fightful's full recap of the show by clicking here.
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