After becoming the first British woman to hold the TNA Knockouts World Championship, Soundsphere spoke to Xia Brookside after she cemented her reign by defeating rival and former tag-team partner Léi Ying Lee in a no-disqualification match on an episode of Impact! Brookside discussed her career, her title win, and the upcoming TNA Lockdown pay-per-view that returns in August 2026.
Image credit: TNA
Soundsphere: With Xia Brookside becoming the first British TNA Knockouts Champion, what do you think this means for the UK scene? And particularly other wrestlers from the north of England?
Xia Brookside: Growing up, Paige was one of my biggest inspirations. She was the first kind of she was the first woman to get out of England and go chase her dream and be the first champion in WWE. And to think this many years later, I can’t remember what year that was for her, but this many years later, I’m the first British champion in TNA. And to think it took that long, but it’s such an honour, and it just goes to show that we can do it. We might come from a little island across the pond, but it’s possible for everyone. It truly is.
Soundsphere: So as Soundsphere is primarily a music magazine, I have to ask: You’ve had multiple entrance tracks now from the band Simple Plan. What’s your connection to this band?
Xia Brookside: So my connection is with State Champs. So this song “Where I Belong” is actually a triple band header. It’s State Champs, We the Kings, and Simple Plan. And I do not know how fortunate I got to get that music, the music rights to use that song. I was just a huge fan of State Champs. I’m talking like 2017, early, maybe even earlier than that. And I just love their music. And then one day I was with NXT UK, and I’m like tweeting them, and then they actually invited me to the show, and I hung out with them. I’m very pop punk. So, that was the main connection was State Champs, and then I was fortunate enough that they were friends with Simple Plan.
Just super fun. So then that kind of made that connection. And then as soon as I signed with TNA, I messaged them. I’m like, hey, I don’t think there’s any budget for me to be buying music, but I really want to use this song, and they were like, “Go ahead, use it,” and I was like, “Oh my goodness, best day of my life! I needed that song. Like, this is where I belong was everything at that time.” It just sucks that I had to change it.
Soundsphere: I’d love to be a fly on the wall for when that decision was made, particularly about the music. What was your reaction?
Xia Brookside: I was scared. Like I knew it was coming, so I knew like the turn was coming, and then I’m like, “There’s no way I can use that song and come out, and it’s just too fun.” And then we actually came up with that new song on the day, and literally just on the database, but it’s great. I still love it. It’s just you know me. I like the big bands pop punk kind of vibe, and I was searching for so long. I’m trying to like, okay, Simple Plan. Let me try and find a song that fits, and I just couldn’t find anything that fit at that time.
Image credit: TNA
Soundsphere: Since then you’ve been locked in a bitter rivalry with Léi Ying Lee. So, talk me through why Xia Brookside is really the good guy in this story.
Xia Brookside: Oh, why I’m the good guy? Because if it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t have won the title. There are things that people don’t see, and then it became all about her and all about the Knockouts World Title when it should have been not just about me, but also as a tag team. She was the one that put that on the sideline, not me. I was still there with her when she won the title, but it became all about her and this title, and well, I didn’t like that. So the Angel Warriors are done. I tried to make us a tag team. I got us matching gear, and we spent a lot of time together to make sure we were on the same level. And she decided to run off to NXT and win the Knockouts World Title, and I wasn’t there. Didn’t ask me to go with her after everything I did. So this is my revenge.
Soundsphere: So let’s talk about the return of TNA Lockdown. That is probably going to be your first big pay-per-view defense as the TNA Knockouts Champion. Does that give you pause?
Xia Brookside: You know what? I would say yes a month ago, but now? No. Now I feel very confident and comfortable in who I am. I am about to go into a no DQ match this week and defend my title, and I think I’m ready. I think you can honestly throw anything at me at this point. TNA have done that to me since I signed here. The Ultimate X match, the Monsters Ball, a title match, a broken, defeated friendship that was awful for both of us. But I’m soaring now, so screw her. She’s gone, and now it is about me, and it’s about what I am capable of. And Lockdown, I think, is going to show everyone just how much more I can do.
Image credit: TNA
Soundsphere: So TNA is in partnership with NXT, which which is always fun to watch. But there’s a faction in NXT right now, which is geared all around the second and third generation wrestlers, and the stable started out around the same time your tag-team ended, so I need to ask: Is there any connecting tissue between yourself and Birthright, and should there be?
Xia Brookside: I would say there is not, but I definitely do think there should be. You talk like you’ve got who in that faction. You’ve got Fit Finlay’s son, you’ve got Regal’s son, and then without me, when you put Robbie Brookside, William Regal, and Fit Finlay, the three guys that were touring all over the UK, all over Europe for such a long time, I think adding me would make the faction whole.
Soundsphere: If you’re a member of that stable, which is primarily an NXT stable, and NXT and TNA go to war again, where does that leave you?
Xia Brookside: TNA have had my back for the last two and a half years, and they have supported me in absolutely everything I’ve done. When I moved out here, and I was on to Gail Kim and Tommy Dreamer, and they vouched for me 110%. They brought me in, and TNA has pushed me in ways no one else did. They believed in me. They believed in the little bobbly baby face that kind of was very one dimensional at the time, and they created just a whole new side of me, or they released it.
They showed me so much more that I was capable of. But they believed in me and they still do to this day. They’ve pushed me every single TV taping that we have had. They’ve made me way more confident. They’ve made me believe in myself in every way. And I think at this point, the future is just there’s so much opportunity. There’s so much to come. It feels like I’m just getting started.
TNA Wrestling presents Lockdown – a showcase event in which every match is contested inside a steel cage — on Sunday, August 23, broadcasting live around the world on pay-per-view from Credit Union 1 Arena in downtown Chicago. It marks TNA’s first Lockdown event since 2016, and the company’s first-ever show at the history-filled arena.