Leaving WWE can be a terrifying prospect for any wrestler, and Isla Dawn is trying to ‘live in the moment’.
The 31-year-old Scottish star was signed by the sports entertainment giant in 2018 and captured the NXT and WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles during her seven years with the company.
In February, it was revealed Isla had been released by WWE with her 90 day notice finishing in May, and she exclusively told Metro about her approach now she’s a free agent.
‘I want to just wrestle and travel and do all the things and whatever door opens, I will be straight through,’ she said days before making her Burning Heart Pro Wrestling debut in Manchester against Aleah James on August 3.
She added: ‘It’s scary and exciting, because I’m kind of like, “Oh, I don’t know I’m doing with my life!” But then there’s also all these opportunities to do things.’
The White Witch didn’t rule out a move to AEW or TNA Wrestling, she also has her sights set on Australia and a return to Japan.
She explained: ‘I want to have all these little things that I want to do and look back on and go, “Oh, yeah, I’ve done this cool thing, and I’ve done that cool thing” rather than being so rigid.’
Isla has managed to stay positive, and even turned the day she got the call about her release into a ‘great weekend in Nashville’ with Irish star Lyra Valkyria after arriving a couple of nights before Raw.
It wasn’t a shock. But I don’t really remember much of the phone call other than me just being very polite,’ she laughed. ‘”Hey, it’s okay, no no, you’re fine.” I was almost apologising, “No, no, don’t you worry, you’re good!”‘
Since her exit, she’s had support from the likes of Bayley and former United States Champion Chelsea Green, and she admitted as much as she loves wrestling, it’s ‘the people that make it’.
That’s been true the entire time, going back to her first ever WWE appearance the week of her tryout, when she faced Asuka on Monday Night Raw in 2017.
‘I was just there in makeup, terrified of being on WWE and I remember Bayley and Mercedes [Mone, AKA Sasha Banks] just coming over and being the nicest people alive and helping me,’ she recalled.
‘Before I went into Gorilla to have the match, I remember the two of them coming up and being like, “Oh, you’re gonna kill it. You look amazing”. Just actively building me up to make me feel good.’
Isla was signed the following year, and rose up the ranks through NXT UK and NXT, where she worked under Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels – and while she has fond memories of the Heartbreak Kid, her mum might not agree.
‘My mum is terrified of Ouija boards, hates them. And I remember Shawn being like, “Oh, we’re gonna get you Ouija boards”. And me being like, “Oh, that is really cool, Shawn, but my mum’s gonna kill me, oh noooo,”‘ she said.
She can remember telling her mum about the idea, and her mum insisting she’d ‘just have to tell Shawn Michaels no’, which wasn’t going to happen.
The highlight of Isla’s time in WWE came last summer, when she and fellow Scottish star Alba Fyre – known as the Unholy Union – won the Women’s Tag Team Titles in Scotland with their family watching.
WWE Hall of Famer Molly Holly was the one who told her they’d be winning gold, but Isla tried not to get carried away with the idea in case plans changed.
‘It was nice to have that with her, because she’s Molly Holly! She was also excited for us,’ she smiled. ‘It was very cool.’
Clash At The Castle itself feels ‘like a blur now’, and Isla admitted she can’t remember much beyond the ‘surreal’ ending with ‘all of Scotland’ cheering them on.
‘One thing I do remember, and I’ll hold it against him for the rest of his life, is my nephew, who was three at the time,’ she chuckled. ‘I was making my entrance and standing in the corner and looking at my family, and he was on his iPad!’
Looking to the future, Isla is happy to take things as they come – but she’s keen to build on what she’s done so far.
‘I’m never going to do a full 180 and be like this new person. What I’ve done my entire career has always been an extension of me,’ she pointed out.
‘I’m a different person, I’m an older person. So it’s just a newer version of me, which is Isla Dawn, and Isla Dawn is me, and we are one.’
Isla Dawn has been announced for Burning Heart Pro Wrestling. For more information, click here.
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