Caleb Konley shares his thoughts on Kris Statlander‘s rise in AEW and the end of AEW Dark.
Speaking with The A2theK Wrestling Show, Caleb Konley was asked to share his thoughts on working with Kris Statlander. The two are also dating in real life, and Konley praised her toughness and her work ethic in the ring, noting that he always knew she would be a big star.
“Kris Statlander is awesome. She’s my favorite wrestler to watch,” Konley said. “That match with her was one of my favorite matches I’ve ever had, to this day. The story with her is a little different than most stories because she can legit beat my ass. So it’s a little bit different because I have to go hard on her because she can kill me. She’s the most determined. She lifts almost as much as me, she’s in the gym more than I am. She’s just a murderer, and she deserves everything she’s getting. From the first day I ever saw her, I knew that she was going to be a giant star.”
Konley went on to reflect on the injuries Statlander has dealt with, and he described how she has worked hard to get to where she is today. He emphasized that, from the start, he always told her she would be a megastar.
“She got hurt the first time, and she was very self-conscious about her place in the company, and I go, ‘Don’t worry, your time’s coming. You’re the best out here. You’re gonna get everything you deserve,'” Konley said. “She started to make a comeback, second knee injury happens. Again, she’s very worried about her position in the company. She’s very hard on herself all the time. That’s why she works so hard.
“I just kept telling her, ‘It’s gonna be okay. You’re gonna come back, you’re gonna kill it.’ Night one of her comeback, she becomes TBS Champion. I texted her as soon as it happened, before she even probably got back through the curtain, I said, ‘I told you, from day one, you’re gonna be a megastar.'”
Kris Statlander ‘s win over Jade Cargill at AEW Double or Nothing came up in the conversation, and Konley noted that the major victory was the culmination of her hard work and her journey back to the ring.
“It was crazy. For nine months, she was basically at home recovering, doing all the things she’s supposed to do,” Konley said. “She’s working out the way she’s supposed to. She’s going to the rehab, and she’s just waiting and waiting and waiting, and she’s still c coming to TVs, and she’s watching the product there, and she’s seeing everything, and she’s doing all the right things.
“It’s just the culmination of nine months of anticipating and waiting. She’s back, and she’s better than ever, and it was just the perfect cap of, ‘Boom, there it is.’”
AEW Dark Cancellation
Konley was also asked about the cancellation of AEW Dark/ and Dark: Elevation, both of which came to an end shortly before the premiere of AEW Collision. In response, Konley highlighted the difficulty of the travel schedule that came with taping Dark and Elevation. He also noted that AEW has plenty of TV shows otherwise.
“It was wrestling on YouTube. It was super cool, and I enjoyed all my time there,” Konley said. “All the matches I had I thought were pretty good. I was happy with all of it. It’s wrestling. They’ve got another show on TV, and then they’ve got a Ring of Honor show also on HonorClub. So how many wrestling shows can one company have at the same time? Not only from a viewer perspective, but from the perspective of the talent that has to fly back and forth. I was at one of the Dark tapings, and then it was like guys had just left from TV across the country and had to fly to Florida to do the taping, and then I think the next day, there was a signing somewhere else, and a whole bunch of the guys were on the signing in New Jersey in the morning, so that had to leave straight from there. It’s just like, do we really need these other shows?
“I get it, in the beginning, it was probably great for them to have another place to work or whatever. Maybe some guys aren’t getting used on TV regularly enough, so this is giving them a good spot. But for other people, especially with Collision coming up and the Ring of Honor shows too, there’s only so much traveling you can do. That’s not good for your body, just flying back and forth. It’s not like territory days, share you would kind of, ‘I’m going here, and then the next day I’m here, and the next day I’m here,’ and they’re a couple hours down the road. They were just ping-ponging all across the country.”
Statlander recently reflected on her recovery from two ACL tears. Click here to see what she had to say.
In a previous interview, Statlander described how she wasn’t sure she was the one who deserved to beat Cargill. Click here to see what she had to say.
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