After Abadon’s Dynamite debut last night I have been thinking about characters in AEW’s women’s division. Abadon adds a much needed dark mysterious heel to the women, with her face paint and contacts creating this ghoulish figure that I absolutely loved. But it got me thinking, why can I find this character more believable than Kris Statlander’s alien character? Why is that?
I know Adadon is not a demonic undead witch or something, but I also know that Kris Statlander is not an Alien from the Andromeda Galaxy. Maybe it’s the fact Statlander uses her Alien character in a more comedic role.
I’m hoping that when Statlander comes back from injury she ditches the Alien gimmick because I feel like it’s holding her back. I think with a more grounded gimmick she would easily be Women’s Champ for a lengthy period to come.
I guess I can suspend my disbelief for some characters more easily than others. What do you guys think?
With Statlander, the alien thing is just kind of mentioned in passing. She has some weird makeup, and touches peoples noses. I mean, if she dropped that gimmick, it wouldn’t have any effect. Whereas, Abadon is invested in the look. There is an insane amount of work put into the presentation that does translate to the audience.
In short, it’s like comparing the Undertaker to the fake Undertaker. One is invested in their role, and one is just doing it
Didn’t Statlander make an appearance or two just as a normal wrestler and then all of a sudden she was referred to as an alien and had UFOs in her entrance?
I haven’t watched Dark in months so when Abadon came out it was like WTF?! And just the way AEW swerved the fans with all the hype for Anna Jay was awesome.
Like Statlander in the ring but the alien gimmick doesn’t seem to fit or enhance who she is. It felt like something from the box of gimmicks. Abadon, despite the strangeness, just felt more real
Well, one (Statlander) is… sci-fi/fictional/goofy while the other looks to me like something black metal/Satan worship related and more… err… grounded into the real world. As I am an life long metal (and VENOM) fan I can totally dig my teeth into Abadon’s gimmick and relate to it as something ~real.
I remember Shida’s facial reactions when she faced Abadon, it had the WTF about it also this character should have both faces and heels not wanting to face her.
It just shows that if you put the effort in then things do pay off and good on AEW for taking on someone who was just a local appearing on Dark as an opponent, I think that something is there to make it work.
My thing against Statlander is, it makes no sense. And it sucks because when you look for realistic things in an unrealistic world, it’s harder to defend one’s point.
The difference between Statlander and Abadon is one is pretending to be a fictional being and the other is just a fucked up person. Jim Ross and Britt Baker sold her. Ross’s horror of who is this crazy person, and Britt Baker telling Schiavone to say this girls needs Jesus.
For me it comes down to the idea of show don’t tell.
Statlander really doesn’t do anything to be an alien beyond booping people. There is nothing really Alien about her wrestling style. Also we were just told “she’s an Alien”. Nothing was built or lead me to believe she was. If she was going to be an Alien it should have been a long term reveal with her wrestling in an odd style, being a bit off in interviews, being described maybe as a bit strange or off.
With Abbadon they didn’t flat out say “well she is a demon.” In fact they went as far as to question if she were possessed and said she wasn’t. Called her a horror movie come to life as she crawled “Ring” style to the ring. Then she wrestled in a brutal style still including some crawling.
Yeah that’s exactly it. What does Statlander do that makes her an alien? And what is the benefit to her as a wrestler? They still haven’t made that clear
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