By Ethan Benedicto
From watching it on TV to dominating the ring for over 500 days, local Narre Warren wrestler Aysha is looking to bring her talents to the United States as an independent competitor.
To be precise, Aysha competes in and is part of Renegades of Wrestling, and has since held the women’s championship belt for 557 days since March 2023, with her title to be challenged on Sunday 29 September at Fever Pitch against Caity Luxe.
Aysha’s interest began in 2009, after attending a Supernova convention and seeing wrestling programs for the first time; after that, she was hooked.
“I’ve never seen wrestling before that, and as a kid, I was very sporty, and I loved action movies and stuff like that, so when I was just amazed.
“Then a couple of weeks later I saw WWE Smackdown on TV and I was like, oh, this is a thing, and from that point, I think I always knew that I wanted to do it,” she said.
Training for her began when she was just 16 years old, and her passion for the sport only grew as she saw more women from Australia enter the WWE, such as Tenille Dashwood and Cassandra Arneill.
She resonated the most with Dashwood, who began in PCW, the same wrestling school that Aysha had attended; to her “it showed me that it was possible, having those inspirations and seeing wrestling around here made me realise that I can do it”.
However, this trip Stateside won’t be the first for Aysha, who recently returned from training at Flatbacks Wrestling School in Flordia with WWE names such as Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze.
It was after this camp and her return that her ‘First Class’ character came to fruition, a persona she adopted during the pandemic and solidified through her wins and cadence in the ring.
“The first few years I was wrestling I didn’t really have a character, and I think it was because I was a bit younger,” she said.
“But I think it’s evolved a lot, when I started getting a bit older, I started developing this character; I started bringing elements of myself into that, I liked fashion, I studied business, it was a way of putting myself in character but also making it bigger than life.”
Carrying with her an aura that exudes confidence, it won’t be a ‘First Class’ match without Aysha holding a bottle of champagne and pointing her finger in the air, as she blends a style of athleticism, technical prowess and a character-driven approach that has led to her acquiring and holding the belt.
A World Series Wrestling match earlier in the year saw Aysha reunited with her trainer, Shawn Spears who, after her match, said that she had been implementing her training well; likewise, while unsuccessful, Aysha took part in a WWE tryout, an experience that she said fuels her determination for the upcoming match and trip.
“I think when I came back to Australia, I took what I learned and have been using this past year to improve,” Aysha said.
“I’m at a point where I go back there [ring] I’m gonna kill it and keep growing my name, it’s just putting the groundwork here in Australia and being able to come and go to America and showcase what I’ve been doing.”
Confident in not just hers, but Australia as a whole’s wrestling scene, Aysha is looking to put her “best foot forward” and show her pride for her country in the coming months.
“Australian wrestling is very high quality, it’s just that we’re so far away no one really sees it,” she said.
“If I have a really good performance when I’m over there, people may go, ‘oh, she’s from Australia’, and maybe look into other Australian wrestlers.”
Aysha also held the championship title for Deathmatch Downunder with her partner – both on and off the ring – Murdoch with their tag team ‘Misspent Youth’.
Much accustomed to having belts around her waist, Aysha isn’t fazed with her matchup against Luxe, even though she was the only wrestler to have pinned her in two years.
With plans to retain the title, Aysha said “I’m confident, I’ve held the title for over 500 days, and from my memory, I’ve beaten her, so I’m going to do that again with confidence.”
