10 Biggest Missed AEW Opportunities

7. Kris Statlander To Be The One

Cody Rhodes AEW World Champion
AEW

The huge caveat here, of course, is that injuries are an unfortunate part of professional wrestling and can derail even the greatest of best laid plans.

For all intents and purposes, it felt as if Kris Statlander was going to be the one to finally hand Jade Cargill her first loss and take the TBS Title from That Bitch. That was, until injury struck and poor Stat now finds herself once again on the sidelines with a major injury.

Having been with AEW since November 2019, the former Galaxy's Greatest Alien's shift to a more serious character earlier this year marked Statlander out as a genuine contender to take Jade's crown, with All Out '22 seemingly the perfect, logical place for this monumental moment to take place.

Instead, it was Athena who (unsuccessfully) challenged Cargill at All Out, and the War Goddess clearly felt like a back-up option who was only in that match because Stat suffered a torn ACL just weeks before the PPV.

With Statlander obviously now out of the conversation for the next several months, AEW has - by no fault of their own - missed out on the opportunity to take the TBS Title off Jade and start to position her as a threat to the AEW Women's Title. When looking around at the rest of the female roster, there really is no obvious choice - well, bar a babyface Jamie Hayter - to dethrone Cargill any time soon, meaning Jade is likely to be 'stuck' with the TBS Championship for the foreseeable future.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.