Isla Dawn On Aleah James: She Is To Me Just An Exceptional Talent

Isla Dawn talks her upcoming return to the UK independent scene with Burning Heart.

On August 3rd, Isla Dawn is set to compete at Burning Heart’s event in Manchester, where she will take on Aleah James in singles action, returning to the UK independent scene following her WWE exit.

While speaking to Fightful’s Corey Brennan in a new interview, Isla Dawn was asked why she chose Burning Heart for her first match on the UK independent scene in five years, noting that they have an ‘insane roster’.

“I just, since their debut, I’ve been keeping an eye on it, and I just, I think they have the, the most insane roster, talent-wise. It is literally the best and best of, not just British, overseas talent that they’ve brought in. I think they’re putting on consistently phenomenal shows, and as I watch it from a fan point of view, I’m like, that’s shows that I want to be at. If I was going to buy tickets for somewhere, I’d go there for who they’ve got on the shows, venues that they’re doing, they’re just doing something cool. It feels like, it feels like we’re back kinda in like the heyday of wrestling, of like pre-Covid, like when British wrestling was that- feels like a bubble of that, which is really cool. So yeah I’m very excited for that to be the first and hopefully I’ll be back again. I’ve heard of maybe something with more women’s, maybe a woman’s title, maybe that kind of thing. So hopefully I’ll set the stage (on) this coming show and then we’ll go from there.”

Dawn was then asked about her opponent at the event, Aleah James, with Dawn having much praise for James, recalling her coming in to NXT UK.

“I love her. I think she’s great. Obviously we met in NXT UK and when she started, I think she’s had 10 matches when she signed to NXT UK or something. She’s had such a small number of matches and I remember she walked in and all of her Twitter gifs had been popping off and all these mad moves and I remember being like, I hate this bitch. Because she was just athletic, talented, pretty, and then I met her and she was funny as well. It’s just annoying, but she to me is just an exceptional talent. She literally has everything that you want in a wrestler. If my nephews were to go to a show, I know that they would be cheering her as soon as she made an entrance because she’s just got that star quality about her. So I’m a big fan of her. But I’m also very excited to beat her up. She’s one of the people that, when I was like, oh, I’m back in the indies now, she was one of the people that I’m like, I want to wrestle Aleah James. Because she… we’ve wrestled before in NXT UK. She was a lot newer then. I still hadn’t fully found my footing in everything that I was doing. It’s going to be a new test and a new challenge, and I want to put myself back in with her and pick it up.”

On August 2nd, Isla will be a guest coach at during Burning Heart’s training camp in Manchester, before facing Aleah James at their August 3rd event.

Following her WWE exit earlier this year, Dawn would tell fans not to grieve for her. You can read more about that here.