Kris Statlander Reflects on Changing Her ‘World’s Greatest Alien’ Character, Reveals How She Found Wrestling

During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander discussed her career and the changes in her wrestling character over the course of her AEW run. She started as “The World’s Greatest Alien,” and she eventually tweaked it to be “More Than a Woman.”

Statlander also spoke about how she discovered pro wrestling. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Kris Statlander on How Wrestling Found Her

“I met friends who were wrestlers, and when I was doing my stunt double training at the time, when I was 18, they were like, ‘That’s similar, come valet us.’ I was like, Sure, I don’t know what that is, but, ok. So I would go, and they would just kind of give me a quick rundown of how to be a manager. And I was like, okay, and then I would just leave, and I’d be like, I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

On the Moment She Fell in Love With Wrestling

“I kind of fell in love with it when I realized I could do a lot of what the in-ring stuff was when I was still kind of valeting. I think that’s kind of when I was like, oh, I want to try that. I want to give it a go. And then I started my in-ring training, and it definitely wasn’t like a one moment hit, and I was like, This is what I want to. It was a very gradual, a slow fall, if you will, in love with it. I started my in-ring training, and then three months into training, I broke my heel, split my heel bone right in half, and then I sat and watched training every day for the two months that I was out. And then when I got back in the ring right after, and I was able to pick things up a lot quicker, I feel like that’s kind of when one people really started taking me under their wing, because they saw how much that I cared about it. When I when people started helping me a little bit more, is when I realized I was like, Oh, this is actually something I can actually do and pursue, especially now that people want to see me succeed at it. And then it just became something that I kind of just never really knew where it would take me. I just sort of was like, let’s just see where it goes. And now here we are.”

Kris Statlander on How She’s Different and Similar to Her Wrestling Character

“Well, Kris Stadtlander, the non-wrestler, it’s spelt s, t, a, d, t, l, a, n, d, e, r, so that’s really a big difference. I also feel like I’m very shy, and when I’m meeting new people, I really don’t speak a lot because I don’t ever want to like interfere with the vibes of other people in a group, and I worry sometimes people might not think I’m friendly for that, but I always try to be friendly. I like to keep to myself. I like to be kind of alone a lot of my time. But then at work, big, powerful, strong person, and I try to be more out there. I try to be bold and daring and scary and stuff like that. But I’m not a scary person. I’m not an intimidating person. I’m such a weird, weird, weird, weird, dork person, and I don’t have any shame in that. I’m not afraid to admit that, and I think it’s taken me a long time to be like I don’t care if you think I’m weird. I don’t think care if you think I’m cringey in my personal time, because that’s who I am, and I’m not gonna apologize for acting weird on my own time. So I think that’s the biggest thing, is that I tried to kind of be everybody, be both of them at once. When I was alien Kris early on, trying to be like, No, I’m just a weird person, and I’m gonna do embarrassing things, but I’m an alien, so it’s fine. You understand that it’s different, but now trying to be a more serious, more badass character. People don’t like it when you do weird things; they’re like, that doesn’t make any sense. And I’m like, Well, I’m sorry. It’s just me. I can’t help it, sometimes.”

On If She’s Still the World’s Greatest Alien

“Well, I’ve never said I wasn’t, and I think that says enough as it is. When I went from Galaxy’s Greatest Alien to more than a woman, I did that purposefully, because I like the undertone of being more than a woman. So it’s like a little bit different, or more than just the ordinary sort of. Now, doing cosmic killer is kind of like cosmic is just, it means large and of great proportions and stuff like that. It doesn’t necessarily mean space, so it’s still kind of like underlying tones of everything, without having to be like alien, oh, my god, out of this world.”

Kris Statlander recently had a 144-day run as AEW Women’s World Champion. She lost the title to Thekla last month on AEW Dynamite.