AEW Star Recalls Waiting 2 Years To Get Surgery Following Nasty Injury
For much of her time in AEW, Julia Hart was the preppy cheerleader that accompanied The Varsity Blonds to the ring, and the world of cheerleading is one Hart knows only too well.
Speaking to Taylor Wilde on her Wilde On podcast Julia Hart opened up about the injuries she suffered during her days as a cheerleader and why an injury left her only able to cheer with one arm as she waited years to get herself fixed:
“So I had two really bad ones (injuries while doing competitive cheerleading). One was my shoulder. I tore my labrum and I battled that for a really long time because it would pop out, it would pop back in and in cheer, we don’t have an off-season.
“Kind of like wrestling, there’s no off-season so if you’re out, you’re kind of screwed so I didn’t get surgery until like two years later of it being torn and I would just cheer with one arm. I would literally lift girls with one arm, do the full routine with one arm because I was like, I don’t want to be off and then I finally got the surgery and then I quit my senior year. Long story.”
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As well as the torn labrum, Julia Hart also suffered a nasty concussion that saw her wind up in the hospital yet her cheer coach still wanted her to compete:
“But then, in 8th grade, I got a really bad concussion. I was at the top of the stunt and I was supposed to switch my legs in the air and I totally missed it. The girls dropped me and I just landed on my head and then four days later, I’m in the hospital throwing up, because I told myself, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine because it was like our first competition that weekend too so I was like, oh, it’s my first year on varsity.
“I was like, ‘I can’t miss it’ and then, you know, if it’s your head, go take care of yourself and I’ve learned that now. It’s like, if it’s my head, I have to be honest with myself and take care of yourself because concussions are not something to mess with.
“I couldn’t even walk. It was literally like the worst concussion, and I’m in 8th grade so I’m just a little girl and I remember too, I’m in the hospital, sh*t (she laughed), it’s the day of the competition that I wake up and I’m throwing up and my coach, one of the cheer coaches calls my mom and goes, ‘Well can she just come quick and do a two minute — it’s just a two-minute routine. Can she just come do it?’
“As I’m in the hospital, throwing up, can’t see and then like, ‘Mom, I gotta go.’ She’s like, ‘Are you kidding me!?’ And I’m like, ‘I gotta go, I gotta go. Two minutes, that’s all it is.’ I was like brainwashed in cheer. I was like, ‘I can do it.’”
Julia Hart is definitely not brainwashed – at least in cheer – anymore on AEW television as she honors The House as part of the mysterious House of Black alongside AEW Trios Champions Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, and Brody King.