Jamie Hayter on Her Belief Evolution Of AEW’s Women’s Division Has Been “An Incredibly Slow Process”, Will Ospreay’s Work With Pro Wrestling EVE, Being Diagnosed with ADHD Over A Decade Ago, & How Her 2023 Back Injury Helped Her Come Back With A Better Mentality For Wrestling

ClutchPoints held a recent interview with Jamie Hayter. One of the topics discussed included Hayter’s thoughts about the evolution of AEW’s women’s division and her belief that it was been an “incredibly slow process.”

“I think there definitely has been an evolution to the division. I think it’s been an incredibly slow process, though. I think it’s only really been the last few years. Well, I don’t know; it’s just been up and down. It’s hard to compare it to before because before there ‌were some positive things about when it first started and some negative things, and you can really say the same about now. Like, I’m always gonna be a champion for women having more time, women getting more opportunities, main eventing, this, that, and the other. Like, I’m always gonna champion that, and it’s certainly happened; more of that has happened, but it’s never enough. So I think, like, and that’s like across the board in like women’s wrestling, women’s sport as a whole. There are definitely changes, but improvements, but they’re not good enough for me to be like, ‘It’s amazing. It’s really, really good.’ It’s okay. And that’s not just AEW specific. Again, it’s just very much how my thoughts and feelings towards women in sport in general and from my own experiences as well.”

Hayter also gave her thoughts about Ospreay working with all-women’s promotion Pro Wrestling EVE and him wanting to help champion women’s wrestling being a great thing.

“I think it’s really good. I think if someone wants to help champion women’s wrestling, then that’s great. Like, anything to get the women on a bigger platform, more butts in seats. Yeah, I’m all for it. Giving women better wages, if that’s what it comes down to, then I’m all about it. I don’t see any help being particularly wrong. I just want the women to do well, and for all the women to enjoy what they’re doing. That’s the most important thing to me. So any help is good, I think.”

Hayter also gave her thoughts about being diagnosed with ADHD over a decade ago.

“It was not a surprise because my family are all neurodivergent and my siblings have autism, 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. 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. 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 also gave her thoughts about how her back injury in 2023 helped her return to wrestling with a better mentality after the depression she had suffered with during her time away from the ring.

“The worst was the first few months because I was really unsure of things, 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.”