I was in so much pain I could barely feed my cats - now I'm back as a pro wrestler

Professional wrestling storylines are often built around surprise moments, from unexpected returns to sudden plot twists.

However when British star Jamie Hayter suffered two herniated discs in her back in 2023, she feared she would never get back in the ring.

It left her in constant pain, barely able to feed her cats - and wondering if her career was over.

But the grappler, who competes with All Elite Wrestling, told BBC News that the experience gave her a better perspective on her wrestling.

And the 31-year-old from Southampton is back on home turf this week, performing in two shows at Glasgow's OVO Hydro arena and then at AEW's biggest event of the year, called All In and held at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

Her injury left her out of action for a year.

"The worst was the first few months because I was really unsure of things," she said.

"The pain was at its highest and I was bed bound – the most I could do was get up, feed my cats, make a coffee and then wobble back to bed.

"I was sitting there depressed, think I'm not doing anything, nothing is going on in my life, and it was hard to see a positive light. Weeks felt like they were taking years to go by.

"It helped me come back with a better mentality for wrestling than I had before, just more mellowed out and with a better understanding of what is worth getting upset over."

Hayter and her tag team partner, fellow Brit Alex Windsor, are in one of Sunday's featured bouts, challenging for the promotion's women's tag team titles in front of more than 40,000 people.

It comes about a decade after Hayter learned she had ADHD. She says her career of bumps and bruises is helping her cope with the diagnosis.

"It was not a surprise because my family are all neurodivergent and my siblings have autism," she recalls.

"At school someone would say 'oh, you might have ADHD' but it never went beyond that, other than getting a little extra help for exams which I always really struggled with.

"It was a relief being diagnosed at the end of the day. It meant I can understand my brain a little better, and how I process and work with things."

The wrestler, real name Paige Woodling, says she can still find things overwhelming a lot of the time.

Being in the ring, though, has proved to be a help over the years, letting her "focus on one thing".

"I need to be in the zone with it, and I wish my brain could do that with other things too. But I think it mixes a lot of things together – there's an audience I want to entertain, it's my job, there are consequences if you don't do it well and I never want to let down the people who are there."

Given Hayter is regarded as one of the top wrestlers in AEW - the world's second biggest promotion behind industry giant World Wrestling Entertainment - it might seem unlikely that she would let down people.

Away from the squared circle though, and she admits things can be harder when the spotlights are off.

"You hear people say 'oh, being neurodivergent is my super power' and I hate that, because it's a debilitating thing. It can be a lot to deal with, and at points I do slip – I'll get overwhelmed with having places to be, or things to do, and life things go out the window.

"I'm still learning to manage it all better."

Hayter first fell in love with the industry when young, watching online clips and videos of matches, with brash anti-hero Stone Cold Steve Austin - a beer drinking, brawling and swearing star of the late 90s and early 2000s - an early inspiration.

"Nothing has ever captured me like wrestling did, not movies or TV or music," she says.

"Wrestling had this weird trance on me. I wanted to watch more, understand it and eventually do it, and I decided I was going to be a wrestler or a stuntwoman."

A prolific career on the British wrestling scene followed, which led to a stint in Japan, and a blink-and-you'll -miss-it appearance on WWE's development show NXT, where she lost to Scottish wrestler Piper Niven in Glasgow.

That was one of very few Scottish appearances for Hayter, who says she's eager to sample a "proper Glasgow crowd" at the Hydro, as AEW record their flagship TV shows Dynamite and Collision in the city.

She has been with the company since 2021, becoming a fixture of their women's division and winning the women's singles title on one occasion.

Earlier this year she was paired up with Norwich native Alex Windsor to form a team calling the Brawling Birds - a fan favourite duo fond of both brawls and booze.

"It's pretty close to us in real life, " she laughs.

"We're pretty tomboyish, we don't take things too seriously and we both like going to the pub. We're loud and boisterous but in a good way, and then you crank that up to 10 – we do ham it up a bit for an American audience."

After recovering from her debilitating injury, Hayter is now in far more optimistic spirits, chatting in the bar of a Glasgow hotel.

She jokes her onscreen character has varied inspirations from Farrah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels to Daphne in Scooby Doo, and this week's shows promise to be some of the biggest in her life.

Hayter also feels AEW itself could feature more women's wrestling - the promotion has yet to headline a major supercard with a women's match in its existence.

"Women in wrestling have proven themselves - we can do great matches, good promos and make you want to see a match.

"There's some inherent misogyny in wrestling as a whole, and women wrestlers for years would always get common tropes.

"But there are lots of different flavours of women's wrestling, and we can tap into that more."

Hayter herself says she's ready for any of those flavours, whatever comes next.

"I think I'm someone that just rolls with the punches. Whatever comes next I'll go full force with it."