Julia Hart is one of the rising stars in the AEW women’s division, but the Witch of the House of Black used to live a very different life.
Hart spoke about her days as a competitive cheerleader during a recent interview on the Wilde On podcast. During her chat with host Taylor Wilde Hart revealed some serious injuries she sustained as a cheerleader, ones that kept her out of action for quite some time.
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.
The second injury was a serious concussion. Hart says that her coaches still wanted her to compete even though she was in no condition to do so.
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.’
