Kris Statlander Details Long Road To Her AEW Return
Kris Statlander has commented on her road to recovery following a knee injury suffered last year.
There was a surprising title change at AEW Double or Nothing on Sunday night in Las Vegas when Kris Statlander beat Jade Cargill in about one minute to become the new TBS Champion. The match happened immediately after Cargill beat Taya Valkyrie to keep her TBS Title. Cargill’s “lawyer” Smart Mark Sterling bragged about how nobody could beat Jade so that led to Statlander making her surprise return.
Statlander is also the first woman to beat Cargill, who started her AEW career with an incredible 60-0 record.
For Kris Statlander, it was her first time winning championship gold in AEW since debuting with the company in November 2019. Unfortunately for her, she has suffered a torn ACL in her knee twice. She hurt her left knee in June 2020 and then tore her right ACL in August 2022.
During the post-Double or Nothing press conference that aired on AEW’s Youtube channel, Kris Statlander talked about coming back from the ACL tear after nine months.
“The timetable went about as expected. I had mentioned it was six to eight months of recovery, but people were forgetting it was six to eight months post-op. It’s a very long process, it takes a long time for these types of injuries to heal.”
“It gives you a lot of time to mentally prepare the comeback and do something as crazy as this. A lot of ups and downs on a recovery like this, a lot of self-doubt, but then you get moments like this and nights like tonight and it makes it all worth it.”
As she continued, Kris Statlander spoke about keeping her rehab process quiet and wanting to make her return a big surprise, which is what happened.
“With the type of preparation that I’ve done, I was very quiet about this one around. If you guys had only seen the things that I have been doing leading up to today, you’d be like, ‘she’s been ready for this.’ I know I kept it under wraps, but I really wanted my return to be a special moment. Not just for me, but for everybody else. It is just jumping off into the deep end, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t feel prepared for it.”
Following the loss to Kris Statlander, it has been reported that Jade Cargill may be getting some time off now that she’s without a title.