During a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander discussed her time away from the ring and what she learned during her rehab.
Statlander suffered a torn ACL and lateral meniscus in her right leg in August 2022. She made her long-awaited return at Double Or Nothing 2023, dethroning Jade Cargill in an impromptu match to become the new TBS Champion.
Statlander said, “There’s a lot of things that you learn when you’re out with such an extensive injury. You learn a lot about yourself and how much wrestling means to you, and how much it sucks when something that you love gets taken away from you. But then, you also kind of learn to take a step back and watch as a fan, and you see how people react to things, and you see how everything is happening as a whole, and then you try to find your way to work back into things and see where you fit. Wrestling always evolves and changes. And you kind of look to see how you can make yourself fit into where the product will be when you return. I think it was a lot more internal soul-searching that you learn about with an injury as opposed to just more moves or anything. You gotta start over and make sure that just you can still do what you used to do once you recover from an injury.”
