Kris Statlander Discusses Facing Jamie Hayter at World’s End & Hardcore Wrestling

Kris Statlander has held the AEW Women’s World Championship since All Out on September 20. She hopes to remain the champion after this Saturday night’s World’s End event, where she’ll defend the title against former champion Jamie Hayter. It’ll be a tough match, but Statlander is known for going to great lengths to come out on top.

Kris Statlander recently did an interview with Iridian Fierro of Wrestfriends where she discussed her upcoming match with Hayter. She also talked about her mindset towards hardcore wrestling, and whether she expected to do that sort of thing when she entered the sport.

On If She Expected To Do Hardcore Wrestling Matches

“No, I had no idea. I didn’t know anything about wrestling before I started. I always was like, “Oh, that seems really scary and gross and terrifying…”, but then…you end up like getting hit by a chair a few times and you like just do a few things and then you’re like, “Oh, I can I can take this.” And then it’s like then your mind gets sick and twisted and then you’re corrupt and then you willingly land on beds of nails and stuff like that or willingly do the splits onto thumbtacks…there’s this weird like ego thing I think that a lot of us feel where it’s like we can go through like we’re so trained to like hurt ourselves in wrestling…Like the next day you’re like, ”I can do anything.” And then it’s like, “How do we make it worse?” And so it’s like we’re not well. No one is well in wrestling. But I respect everyone who draws a line at certain things because “I respect you. I would never force you to do anything, but I will do anything. Don’t worry.””

On Facing Jamie Hayter at World’s End

“I have a lot of thoughts because she’s one of my favorite people to watch. I’ve wrestled her often, but only once in a singles match and that was earlier this year in the Owen Hart tournament and she did beat me. Plus, she’s also a former champion. I have a lot of concerns and thoughts going into it, but I also feel like I need to stop worrying about what other people have done prior to this because prior to this, Mercedes had beaten me twice and I had no confidence in myself when it came to wrestling her the third time. However, I was able to come out successful finally. And I need to realize that like my sob story is over. I lost all the time early on. I had two major injuries and then I won a title and then I won a second title. And it’s like I I need to not stop feeling sorry. I need to stop feeling sorry for myself because that’s probably what’s been holding me back. I’ve had everything that I was ever told I deserve, what I worked for, and I’m like, I need to remember I’m in this position for a reason. And I am going into this match with a different mindset, not in the fact that like, oh no, she’s beaten me before and, oh no, she was a champion before. I’m going into this knowing who I am finally. I feel like I’ve finally like reached my final form in a way. So, she said that she’s not the same person that she that I teamed with or and I agree because she’s not going to be in there with the same person she teamed with. So, I’m actually very excited overall.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WrestFriends with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.