Xia Brookside reflects on her runs in STARDOM.
Following her exit from WWE in August 2022, Xia Brookside sought out to rediscover herself as a person, and as a wrestler. Naturally, Brookside gravitated to the place she believed would be best suited to fulfill her mission — Japan.
In December 2022, Brookside returned to Japan’s STARDOM promotion, aligning herself with Mariah May and Mina Shirakawa of the Club Venus stable. Brookside’s fifth STARDOM run spanned one month, with her final match taking place at STARDOM’s Triangle Derby I event in
Maebashi, Japan.
Learning Opportunity
Brookside looked back on her time in STARDOM during a recent interview with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard, pinpointing the biggest lesson she learned from training and performing there.
“My goal when I left WWE was to go back to Japan,” Brookside said. “That was the first place I wanted to go because I wanted to refind myself and who I was as a wrestler. I feel like it gives you so much opportunity out there. You get a lot of reps, you get to wrestle with so many talented women. The bar they set out there for women’s wrestling is just incredible, especially at STARDOM. You’ve got Guilia for example. Io Shirai was there. Kairi Sane, a lot of top girls wrestled in STARDOM. I don’t know if there is one thing in particular that I bought away to kind of teach everyone else. I think it’s really an experience that you have to go through yourself because everyone gets something different.”
“I really learned a lot about the culture and the language, and I just love Japan in general. How they structure their matches and how they fight each other. They taught me so much more of a hard, intense style. They taught me not to be afraid. They taught me how to take a hit and get back up. They’re very strong and disciplined. Discipline, I would say that they taught me a lot about discipline and that, I definitely brought back with me.”
Watch our full interview with Xia Brookside below:
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