Where is Jamie Hayter?
The former AEW Women’s World Champion gave an excellent performance at Double or Nothing against Mercedes Mone. The following Wednesday, Hayter was going to cut her first promo since her shocking loss to the TBS Champion, but newcomer Thekla interrupted the interview by attacking Hayter. That was the last time Hayter has been seen on television.
Unfortunately, the reason Hayter has been off television is due to not being cleared to compete. Fighful Select reports that Jamie isn't cleared to compete for full in-ring activity. It’s unknown what the exact nature of her injury is, or when she received the injury, as some are reporting that she walked into her match against Mone less than 100%. Others are stating that it happened during the Mone match, but no one has any concrete proof on when the injury occured.
The Thekla angle was done to write Hayter off of television for the time being. AEW reportedly had to “get creative” with the angle with Thekla because she wasn't medically cleared, so that’s why they took the approach of the aew newcomer assaulting the former AEW Women’s World Champion while the lights were out. There’s currently no time table for when Hayter could return.
Dave Meltzer briefly discussed this topic on the Wrestling Observer and clarified the reasoning behind Thekla’s attack on Hayter.
“I guess she was hurt in the Mercedes Mone match,” Meltzer said. “So when they did the Thekla injury angle, that was set up to cover for [Hayter’s] injury and to get a storyline reason for her to be out. I just figured it was a way to introduce Thekla and set up a feud and that they didn’t follow up on, because there hasn’t been anything. But that’s the reason that it wasn’t followed up on, because she actually went into it hurt. When she is ready, they do have an angle they can follow up on.”
It’s a shame that Hayter was injured at this time because her match against Mone definitely raised her stock within AEW. It would’ve been great if the company could’ve followed up with a hot feud that carried Hayter into All In, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for the time being. The injury doesn't seem to be too serious given the lack of information, but take my words for a grain of salt since I have no inside knowledge about what’s going on with Hayter.
The former AEW Women’s World Champion is just coming back from a long layoff due to injury, so it would be a shame if she was on the sidelines for a lengthy period of time again.