Xia Brookside hopes she'll return to WWE one day, but she also has other goals.
Brookside made her WWE debut in the Mae Young Classic in 2018. She subsequently joined the NXT UK brand until August 2022, when WWE announced that it would be going on hiatus ahead of the launch of NXT Europe in January. Since her release, she has only wrestled a few times on the independent scene.
Speaking with Riju Dasgupta of Sportskeeda Wrestling, Brookside discussed the end of the NXT UK brand. When asked whether she was "crushed" when WWE announced its hiatus, Brookside noted that she was, as it was a significant part of her life. She emphasized that she grew on TV throughout her time with the brand.
“For sure. It’s been the last four years of my life, and I feel like it’s been such a big part of my life. I debuted with the WWE when I was 18, 19 years old. I was still a teenager. Yeah, I’m at the end of my teenage years, but it was such a huge part of my life. How much do you change between the ages of 19 and 24 now? That’s huge. So much development happens in that time, and all of my mind happened on TV for everyone to see. We weren’t touring here. We weren’t touring, doing live events. Everything that we did was filmed. Every show that we did went on TV. There wasn’t room for error. So any error or any things that didn’t go ‘right’, for example, they were on TV. I was learning on TV. It’s just crazy," Brookside said.
She went on to emphasize that, after her initial reaction, she focused on the road ahead. Brookside described how she has been determined to push forward and remind herself of who she is. The former NXT UK star expressed that she'd like to return to WWE someday, but she also has other goals, such as having a dream match against Mickie James. Brookside made it clear that her mission is to enjoy the ride and make the most of it.
"I’ve grown so much in that time that when it’s taken away from you, you’re like, hang on a minute. I just bought a house. I’m getting married. There’s so much coming up, and I was just like, ‘What do I do?’ Then I just checked myself and I was like, ‘Well, you were doing it before, Xia. You’re fine.’ Then that’s when I was like, ‘No, I’m just gonna keep going. I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing. I’m gonna hold my head up. I’m gonna do interviews like this and remind myself who I am, remind myself why I started wrestling. Because I feel like that’s the most important thing. Everyone has setbacks, but it’s what you do with them. One day, I hope to wrestle in that ring again. I hope to wrestle for the WWE, I wanna be in America. But there’s so many many things that I can do now too. I wanna go to IMPACT and wrestle Mickie James. That would be crazy. I’m just gonna take everything that’s happened and see what crazy life I can bring myself. I wouldn’t have wrestled in Poland last weekend if I was still with them. It’s an adventure. Let’s just hit every step of the journey and have fun with it," she said.
Brookside previously commented on her future in wrestling. Click here to see what she had to say,
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