AJ Lee has revealed she feared she was paralysed during the ‘scariest’ moment of her career.
The former Divas Champion – – has returned to the business through her involvement in the revived Women of Wrestling promotion, but she has snubbed the idea of an in-ring comeback.
‘I’m going to keep it feeling great by not wrestling. I hurt my neck really bad the last year, and when it happened in the ring, I thought I was paralysed, which was the scariest thing ever,’ she told Renee Paquette .
AJ hasn’t wrestled since the Raw after WrestleMania in 2015 when she teamed with Paige and Naomi in a winning effort against the Bella Twins and Natalya.
Later that week, she brought her eight-year in-ring career to an end, while an injury suffering during her last year means she will never step between the ropes again.
Reflecting on the match in question against Paige, she explained: ‘I f**ked up her move. I like, jumped a little early and I landed on the top of my head, couldn’t feel my legs, and they were like, “You gotta sell to hard cam,” and I was like, [whispering] “I can’t feel my legs”.
‘And then I just roll over and sell to harm cam. And then I got my feeling back and went to the doctor, it turned out three of my discs are so compacted it is shutting off a nerve, so my hands just go numb randomly.’
AJ – whose husband CM Punk made his AEW debut last year after seven years away from wrestling – admitted she decided to ‘rehab’ the injury rather than have surgery, and she continued to work as champion.
‘I had the option to do surgery to alleviate that pain or do rehab, and I went the rehab route. I was doing rehab and I was still on the road as champion,’ she added. ‘My hands still go numb, but other than that, I was very lucky!’
Last year she announced her return to the business as a, which has been spearheaded by GLOW founder David McLane and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss.
Back in October, she said: ‘I have never stopped loving wrestling, but when I retired I retired knowing that I accomplished all of my dreams.
‘Growing up, I had never seen someone that looked like me on TV. I’d never seen myself represented, and it’s really hard to be what you cannot see. So, I worked hard and I became that figure for myself.
‘But my goal after wrestling was to create those characters for the next generation so every little girl could see themselves on TV and know that nothing was impossible.’
