AEW Champ Kris Statlander Explains Why She Doesn't See Herself As A Wrestling Fan
While some professional wrestlers today are students of the game and have been training their entire life to compete inside the squared circle, others didn't have much of a background or interest in the sport before entering the business, which is the case for AEW Women's World Champion Kris Statlander. Speaking on "The Ringer Wrestling Show," the "The Galaxy's Greatest Alien" explained that she's never considered herself a wrestling fan, and doesn't watch the product outside of major events or for work purposes.
"I'm much more of a fan of wrestling now than I was. I don't really watch it that often unless it's like big shows and obviously my job, unless it's AEW. I do see myself more as an athlete or that's how I try to talk to myself when I'm not at work, when I'm at home and I need to focus on nutrition and training and stuff like that ... I don't like to consider myself a wrestling fan because people who are just wrestling fans hate wrestling more than anything."
Kris Statlander claims that she had no intentions of being a professional wrestler
In addition to never viewing herself as a wrestling fan, Statlander admitted that she had no desire to step inside the ropes, but eventually decided to test her talents in the ring and realized she could perform at a high level.
"So I didn't want to be a pro wrestler. I didn't know what wrestling was until I started training ... I was very much just like, oh, we'll see what happens. We'll see where I go with this. I never really had the goal to get signed or to win a belt or anything like that. It was something fun for me to do that was physical and then I ended up being pretty good at it, and here I am now. But I feel like I was weird and I was very awkward, socially awkward."
Statlander continued to explain that she's always been quiet and awkward to be around, stating that she's often shy when first meeting new people until she becomes familiar with those around her.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Ringer Wrestling Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.