The return of Julia Hart strengthens AEW's women's division

The evolution of Julia Hart over the past 3 years in AEW has been some of the AEW creative team's best work. Julia came into the company with a cheerleader gimmick serving as a mascot for the tag team known as the Varsity Blonds. The character was a natural fit for Hart who participated in competitive cheerleading growing up, so throwing a pair of letter jackets on a couple of young wrestlers (Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman, Jr.) and pairing them with Hart seemed like a no-brainer.

However, Hart would soon leave the cheerleading gimmick behind and she would begin to play a bigger role in storylines near the end of 2021 when Malakai Black spit mist into her face during an episode of AEW Dynamite. After months of increasingly odd behavior and speculation of Hart joining the House of Black, it finally became a reality at AEW Full Gear in May of 2022.

Since joining the House of Black, Hart has inarguably done the best work of her professional wrestling career, both in vignettes and the ring, and the AEW fans began to take notice. Hart started to rack up wins in singles competition, most notably, defeating Willow Nightingale twice, and would eventually win the TBS Title in a three-way match against then-champion Kris Statlander and Skye Blue.

Julia Hart would go on to have a five month title reign, but the list of challengers she turned back during her reign as TBS Champion was not exactly a who's who of professional wrestling. Hart notched wins over the likes of Emi Sakura, Anna Jay, Lady Frost, Leyla Hirsch, and Abadon, all fine competitors, but no one who was a serious contender for the TBS Title at the time of the contests.

Despite the lack of credible challengers during her reign, Hart continued to get over with AEW crowds. Her entrance to the ring was captivating and Hart continued to improve between the ropes on a weekly basis, including adding a breathtaking moonsault into her arsenal.

Unfortunately, Hart's TBS Title reign may have ended a bit prematurely as she was battling an injury that would force the young rising star to take an extended break from the ring. After weeks of very well-done vignettes, Hart made her return to AEW on last week's AEW Dynamite, attacking a woman with a very similar story who has also only recently returned to the ring after a long layoff, Jamie Hayter.

Jamie Hayter and Julia Hart are two women that AEW desperately needed back to strengthen the upper echelon of its women's division. Both women have held gold in AEW and both were very over with the crowds at the times that they were forced to take time away to recover from injury. Either one of these competitors would be a viable challenger for both the AEW Women's Title or the TBS Title, and whoever wins this feud may indeed be put into a title program next.

The only downside to this feud is that one of these excellent performers is going to suffer a relatively high-profile loss, and it is imperative that both women remain on AEW television for the good of the women's division and the good of AEW programming as a whole. AEW has done a good job of strengthening their women's division, both through free-agent signings and the development of their young talent. Now it's up to, and stop me if you have heard this before, the AEW creative team to find time on their weekly television programming and pay-per-views shows to let these talented performers shine.