AEW All In 2024: Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway say 'we need to show out and perform' in mixed tag match

Despite being the TBS champion at the time, Kris Statlander didn't have the opportunity to take part in the 2023 edition of AEW All In from Wembley Stadium in London. Statlander won't miss out on AEW's return trip on Sunday when she teams with her manager Stokely Hathaway against Willow Nightingale and Tomohiro Ishii at All In 2024.

It's the kind of opportunity even an accomplished wrestler can't view as just another trip to the ring, as Statlander told CBS Sports.

"It's very exciting," Statlander said. "Not only to have a match on the pay-per-view but to have one on one of the biggest stages of all time. Our biggest stage of the year. It's a really cool thing to experience, especially since I didn't get a chance to do it last year. It's nice to have cemented my place and earn a spot this year."

For Hathaway, the experience is somewhat more unexpected. While he has experience playing the role of manager being forced into matches in the past, having wrestled in promotions from Ring of Honor to Chikara to EVOLVE and others, stepping into the ring in Wembley is a different animal.

"I think it's one of those things where you never really think you're going to be put into this position or on this type of show," Hathaway said. "To be honest, I don't think it has really resonated or hit me yet. I would expect that when I show up on Sunday, the full reality of what I'm facing will be in front of me. As of now, it's Wembley, it's All In, we know it's going to be 50,000-plus people there. For us, we know we need to show out and perform."

Managers have taken on an increasingly diminished role in wrestling's more modern eras. More wrestlers speak for themselves and the idea of needing a mouthpiece or an additional personality to provide extra heat has seen the managerial role fall out of style.

Hathaway is one of the few to have cemented a solid place in wrestling, advancing from the independent scene to WWE's NXT brand, and eventually, a featured role on AEW television.

Both Hathaway and Statlander believe the dynamic benefits both parties, even in an era where managers are rarely featured on the big stage.

"I would say a benefit is having someone to bounce ideas off of and I know that I have someone that is going to always have my back," Statlander said. "Sometimes when you pair with another wrestler, you don't know if they're ever going to get into things for themselves and look for their own intentions. With him, he's got only things to gain from the both of us succeeding so there's not much of a downside to have a manager like Stoke on your side. He's there for me, I'm there for him and we just want to be better and succeed together."

"I think that was Statlander's way of saying I don't have any friends and yes, she is absolutely right in that regard," Hathaway interjected. "We have each other and she is right that wrestling is a very cutthroat business. You never know who is your friend or who is using you for that but we do have each other to bounce ideas off of. At the end of the day, my success is her success and that's where the dynamic succeeds."

Obviously, having a non-wrestler involved in a match comes with some complications and adjustments, even when they have wrestled in the past and impressed doing so.

But Statlander believes Hathaway can hold up his end in the match, even with a Japanese legend like Ishii in the opposite corner, though she was surprised when told that current NXT champion Ethan Page once said on a podcast that Hathaway has "the best suicide dive in the business."

"We took some training recently. I didn't see any suicide dives so I can't vouch for that," Statlander said. "Whether I make him do one at Wembley or not, we'll see. But I will say, what I've seen from our work together in and out of the ring, what you've seen on TV and what you don't see ... there's a lot of potential there. His style is unexpected, I'm going to say. There is going to be a lot of excitement for everyone.

"For me, I'm looking at this as a straight-up tag match. That's what it is and that's how we're going to gameplan this. We aren't stepping up to a challenge we can't handle. This is a tag match for us. People don't know what we've been doing behind the scenes and they're not ready."

The majority of Hathaway's time in the ring came in the three years between 2016 and 2018, a period when the independent wrestling scene was red-hot.

It was also during that time that Timothy Thatcher, one of the most respected wrestlers in the world, told Hathaway to "burn his boots" and stay out of the ring. The time now seems right for his first match in more than a year. That it's happening on such a big stage, reminiscent of Bobby Heenan teaming with The Islanders at WrestleMania 4, makes it all the more appealing.

"It's so funny because a few years ago Timothy Thatcher yelled at me for wrestling," Hathaway said. "He told me that I should never get in the ring -- ever -- and to burn my boots. I think he meant it as a compliment, saying I'm such a good talker, why would I dare step in the ring? But I think we all need an adrenaline rush. For some people it's jogging in the park at 3 am. For me, it's stepping into a wrestling ring. My last match was actually me and Samoa Joe against The Boys. That was last July, so it's been over a year. Stat and I started training a couple of weeks ago and after that first day, I woke up and was walking around like I was Fred Sanford. My body was pretty battered and bruised. My body hasn't gotten used to it yet. It's been a hot minute since I put on those boots.

"I've gone back and looked at traditional matches with managers and wrestlers on big stages. The problem is, wrestling has evolved. Everything is different now. I think you can take ideas and implement them but you're not looking through the same lens you did in 1988 or 1994 or even the late 1990s or 2000s. I would say wrestling evolves, I would say, every six months or so. When you look at the landscape of wrestling from the end of this year to the middle of next year, it will be vastly different. For us, it's what benefits us, what benefits the company and what we can do to position ourselves as the best duo of manager and wrestler in AEW."

Between winning and losing titles and time on the shelf with injuries, Statlander has had an up-and-down career in AEW, though marked with more successes than failures.

After her team with Nightingale fell apart, with Statlander turning on her former partner and siding with Hathaway, it positioned Statlander to once again get her singles career rolling and back to the position she was in when she held the TBS title for 174 days.

The path back to the top continues with Sunday's All In match and continues two weeks later when she meets Nightingale for the CMLL women's world championship at AEW All Out in Chicago.

"Things are pretty solid right now but they can always be better," Statlander said. "There's always room for improvement. As much as I'm trying to cement my path as one of the most dominant people, not just women, on the AEW roster, there's always more to be proven. I want to make a statement at All In and in my follow-up match with Willow at All Out. I'm going to make a statement and show who I am and never had to dip down and rebuild myself."