AEW Champion Reveals How Long Title Win Was In The Works
Jade Cargill reigned over the AEW women’s division as the undefeated TBS Champion to the point it seemed that she had run out of challengers but Kris Statlander had other ideas.
After Cargill had retained her title once again at Double Or Nothing to move to a career record of 60-0, arrogance got the better of Cargill’s lawyer Mark Sterling as he laid out an open challenge then and there to anyone to face his client for her title.
After nine months out of action with a serious knee injury, Kris Statlander returned to the company to answer that challenge, defeating Jade Cargill in under a minute to become only the second-ever TBS Champion.
Speaking on Haus of Wrestling, Kris Statlander revealed that her big title win had been in the works for several months, although she never got her hopes up although she did appreciate the faith shown in her to be the one to finally end Jade Cargill’s undefeated streak and title reign:
“There was talks about it a few months before I fully returned, but I always never believe that things are going to happen until I walk out there and it happens. So I was kind of just, even the night before, I was like, ‘We’ll see if this happens because things can change.’ That’s how it is.
“It wasn’t that I don’t trust people. It’s just that, you know, things happen so much. Things need to be changed and you can never really, it’s more just you don’t want to set yourself up for disappointment. There wasn’t anything like, ‘Oh, we’re not sure if you’re the one that’s going to do it,’ it was more just, you know, ‘We’ll see what the definitive plans are when we get there.’
“But I do remember when I first heard the idea, I was kind of like, ‘Okay if that’s what you want.’ It was a very, very cool thing to know that a lot of people trusted me to be that one, and I just hope that in that moment I did return and that everything I continued to do while I have the title lives up to and exceeds expectations.”
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Statlander has already had two successful televised defenses of her title against Anna Jay and Nyla Rose, although she seems to have caught the attention of Taya Valkyrie who was Jade Cargill’s original Double Or Nothing opponent.