Anna Jay Says Recovery From Surgery “Is Going On Track”

Appearing on Oral Sessions with Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay (filling in for Renee Paquette) AEW star Anna Jay talked about how she got into wrestling. She revealed she became a fan as a kid and was connected to retired wrestler Glacier through her aunt, who was friends with the former WCW star.

"My dad was always a huge wrestling fan, so I would sit down and watch it with him," Jay said. "It was kind of a joke, because I have two brothers and they never watched it. But I loved it. And so I always wanted to do it, and I would always tell my parents 'I really think I can do this one day.' I was probably like ten years old, and they were always really supportive and like 'yeah you probably can. You should try.' It kind of fell into my lap in the best way possible. I was in college where I'm from. It's kind of confusing. My aunt is good friends with Glacier, who was from WCW. And he's the one that owns the Power Factory, which is now the Nightmare Factory, in Atlanta with QT Marshall. So she was just talking to him and saying 'yeah my niece loves wrestling. She's always wanted to try it.' And he was like 'well tell her to come down to the school and try it.'

"When I found out I was like 'oh my gosh. This is it. I have to try it. Let's see.' So I drove to Atlanta, which is about five hours from where I'm from, where I live now, and I went to a wrestling camp. And I loved it, didn't know anything, kind of like Taynara. I had no idea what I was doing, I've never stepped into a ring before and I went to a wrestling camp. I was like 'this is really intimidating.' But I loved it and I knew it was something I wanted to do. I knew too that I would have to move if in order to follow this dream, because you have to put your all to it. So I was like 'okay, I'm going to move.' I dropped out of college, I think it was about five months later I moved to Atlanta to train full time. And here I am."

Jay signed with AEW in April of 2020 following a match with Hikaru Shida on AEW Dynamite. She talked about joining the Dark Order, something that was discussed from the moment she was brought in, and how much of an effect Brodie Lee had on her.

"So whenever I first got signed, they talked about putting me in the Dark Order," Jay said. "And then they kind of went back and forth on whether it was a good fit for me. I didn't know if it was a good fit for me, obviously, I was going to do whatever. I actually met Brodie the day that I got signed, and he was super sweet. And then when I actually joined, everyone was super welcoming, all of the guys were, especially him. I felt like he was a big brother, father figure, at work for me.

"He was always helping, always welcoming, always joking around and made me feel comfortable. He would always help me too. I always say he would watch my stuff and give me feed back. And I didn't ask for that and I didn't have to. Especially now it really means a lot to me because now I don't have that exactly in the Dark Order. Just a bunch of knuckleheads! He always said, whenever I went out there, basically to treat it like it was real. Obviously don't hurt anyone, but just to go out there and just have the mindset that 'this is real and it will be portrayed that way.' That helped a lot."

Currently Jay has been out of action since February after suffering a shoulder injury during training. According to Jay, the injury was the same as one she suffered early in her wrestling career.

"Unfortunately I don't know if the surgery was not what it was supposed to be, or recovery or anything like that, I'm not sure," Jay said. "I ended up tearing my labrum in my shoulder again in training. Same arm, same tear, everything. They just think that maybe the first surgery was not 100% well done. And yeah, I just tore my labrum, found out. Obviously I was really bummed out. But I'm really hoping, fingers crossed, this surgery is the charm and I won't have to worry about this ever again. But unfortunately injuries are apart of what we do."

Months after surgery Jay is finally feeling back to normal. But when asked when she would be returning to the ring, she revealed she wasn't sure how far off that was.

"I don't really know," Jay said. "I know everything is going on track how it should. Of course the doctors don't really want to say because it could change. I don't really know. But yeah, everything is going as it should. Obviously I'm hope sooner than later, but then again I'm also not rushing it. I don't really have a timeframe yet so we'll see. I had surgery on March 11, so it's been about three months now. I feel really good. Everything pretty much feels normal now, but obviously it's not. It's not wrestling normal I guess."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription