Christy Hemme has addressed and dispelled a long-standing rumor suggesting that AJ Styles caused the end of her professional wrestling career. This clarification came during her recent appearance on the Velvet Ropes podcast with SoCal Val, where she explained what actually led to her retirement from wrestling. The rumor claimed Hemme sustained a broken neck during a private training session with Styles, but Hemme provided a different account of how her injury occurred.
Injury occurred during a match with Awesome Kong, not training
Hemme revealed that the injury was not connected to AJ Styles or any private session but happened during an in-ring match against former TNA Knockouts Champion Awesome Kong. She described the moment when she first felt numbness coming from her neck during the bout.
“I remember I was in a match with Kong. I got thrown into the turnbuckle and going numb from the neck down,”
Christy Hemme recalled.
“I remember it like, ‘What was that? Oh my gosh.’ And then I came out of it, and then I got thrown again in the turnbuckle and it happened again. It was stuck a little bit longer. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just remember thinking, this is really serious.’”
After the match, Hemme shared her symptoms backstage with TNA’s doctor Brad Holman, prompting immediate medical attention.
“And so when I came backstage afterwards, I told Brad Holman, this is our doctor… I said, ‘I’m feeling this thing in my neck or my head or my back,’”
Hemme explained.
“So immediately it was like, we got to get an MRI.”
Medical evaluation uncovered severe spinal damage
The MRI exam revealed that Hemme had two spinal protrusions pressing on her spine, injuries serious enough to force her immediate retirement. Such damage posed a significant risk of paralysis if aggravated further.
“And that’s when I went and got my MRI, and I had two protrusions in my spine that were sitting on my spine. You can’t wrestle with that,”
Hemme stated.
“Like that’s the kind of thing where if I had been thrown a little harder, which is not my opponent’s fault by the way, how are you to know if that’s happening inside a body? But if I had been thrown harder, it could have severed my spine and I’d be paralyzed. So I had to stop completely.”
Hemme added some humor while addressing how the incorrect story about her injury became connected to training rather than a match.
“And so that’s how it happened. I don’t know why we undramatized that story and made it a training story,”
Christy Hemme joked.
Implications for Hemme and the wrestling community
Christy Hemme’s revelation corrects misconceptions surrounding her career-ending injury by removing AJ Styles from blame and highlighting the risks wrestlers face in the ring. Her early retirement due to spinal damage underscores the physical toll wrestling can take and the importance of timely medical intervention. This clarification might help reduce misinformation about injuries in professional wrestling and ensure proper credit is given to the circumstances that impact athletes’ careers.
