Isla Dawn wasn’t surprised by her WWE release.
On February 8, the former WWE star was released from her contract, ending a seven year tenure with the company. The 31-year-old first made waves down in the Mae Young Classic; Dawn was eliminated after the first round, but she impressed WWE officials enough to earn a contract to NXT UK.
Arguably, Dawn’s best period in WWE was her time in NXT UK as she had memorable battles against Rhea Ripley and Kay Lee Ray (Alba Fyre). However, once NXT UK folded, Dawn was able to transition into tag team wrestling with the newly named Alba Fyre and created the Unholy Union.
Despite being a former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion, WWE never seemed to understand how to use the duo effectively in storylines. So when Dawn was released earlier this year, it wasn’t much of a shock to anyone, including the very woman herself.
“I wasn’t surprised at all.” Dawn said in an interview with Fightful’s Corey Brennan. “I had been at Smackdown the night before and we’d got word of a few people being released, and I remember texting my mate and being like, ‘oh, I think I’m in this one’, and they were like, ‘no, don’t be stupid. You’re always thinking you’re getting fired. You’re always negative,’ and I was like, ‘no, no.’ I was like, ‘I feel this one.’ It’s not even from anything anyone said or anything.
I could just feel it. But that’s the thing. Like, at some point, everyone, well, most people are going to be released. So it’s not really- it’s not a if, it’s a when for a majority of people. So I knew at some point it was going to end and then towards the last, like, little bit, I was like ‘oh I can feel it, I can feel it coming,’ so it wasn’t like it was sad and it was whatever, but it wasn’t like.. I feel like out the dark shock.”
Since then, Dawn has been pretty active on the independent scene. She’s set to fight Aleah James at the Manchester 2 Arena on August 3rd. Check out the full interview where she talks about returning to the UK scene, working with Alba Fyre, and pitches that didn’t make it to WWE television. It’s an insightful interview that’s definitely worth a listen. Dawn is 31, so hopefully, she gets snatched up by one of the other major companies in the US.