Isla Dawn, QT Marshall, Keepin It Kayfabe Directors Speak With Fightful

Keep it Kayfabe Directors

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful spoke with the directors of the upcoming Speedball Mike Bailey documentary Keep it Kayfabe.

One of the directors is a big fan of pro wrestling, while the other was just getting acquainted, which reflected the audiences they're looking to gather. It is a documentary that followed Mike Bailey across WrestleMania weekend 2023 when he had at least ten bookings in a three day span.

They spoke highly of Mike Bailey and said the wrestling environments were very welcoming, especially because of their connection to Bailey. It shows the process of putting together the matches, wrestling then and the aftermath.

They said they had the movie 95 percent done when Bailey signed with AEW, and that motivated them to get into another gear.

They have the world premiere of the documentary at San Diego Comic Con on Thursday at 8 PM. He'll be in attendance for a Q&A.

The full interview is available for all subscribers at this link.

Isla Dawn Interview Notes (Full Interview now on tier 2)

Fightful’s Corey Brennan sat down with Isla Dawn for an interview before her return to the UK indies on August 3rd with Burning Heart to take on Aleah James. The full interview will be available on Fightful’s YouTube in the near future. For now, here are notes from the interview.

When asked about guest coaching during the training camp Burning Heart are hosting on August 2nd, Isla noted she’d only coached one seminar before and joked about how she didn't really know what she was doing then. Dawn also spoke about how much she was looking forward to doing the character work part while also praising Kenny Williams and Zack Gibson as coaches. On what fans can expect from her in her new run, Dawn hopes to show off a new and improved version of her character.

While speaking about the UK scene as a whole, Dawn mentioned names such as Nina Samuels, while praising the women’s wrestling scene on the island. When asked about what stood out to her about Burning Heart, she noted that the promotion have been putting on ‘consistently phenomenal’ shows that she wants to be a part of. Isla would put over her her opponent on August 3rd, Aleah James, but did note she was looking forward to beating her up. Dawn would also put over names on the UK scene such as Nina Samuels, Lizzy Evo, Harley Hudson and Millie McKenzie.

When asked about her WWE release, Dawn said that she was not surprised by it, noting how she had told a friend her suspicions as she was hearing of other talent being released earlier this year. On working with Alba Fyre, Isla noted how she loved being part of a tag team, calling her and Fyre’s two tag team championship wins her professional highlights of her WWE run. Dawn also noted how much she has been enjoying watching Fyre as part of the Secret Hervice on SmackDown.

Dawn also noted that her and Fyre’s main roster callups came as a surprise, as they had just won the NXT tag team titles at the time, noting that it was a ‘complete shock’. Dawn also felt like she and Fyre were ‘flung into’ their rivalry with Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler. Isla spoke highly of both Shayna and Rousey, expressing her disappointment that the teams only faced off once.

On the topic of pitches that didn’t make it to television, Dawn recalled pitches relating to Natalya, as well as one with Scarlett and Karrion Kross.

QT Marshall spoke with Fightful's The Spotlight

Echoes Tony Khan and believes that AEW is on a tremendous run right now. Feels the company has found its groove and is servicing what the fans want.

Has been focused on helping Tony Khan and not wrestling in AEW.

Says AEW was getting good deals on bigger arenas, which is why they ran them, but the smaller buildings have helped bring intimacy. Thinks running Esports Arena residency last year may have been a package deal to run All In in Arlington. Hopes to run a residency in Atlanta.

Was hoping to do more the Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling brand, but with WWE ID and Cody being in WWE things got a little crazy.

Wants 1 Fall Wrestling to be a promotion that wrestlers are proud to work for. Hopes to run Summer Stage event at Center Stage yearly.

Asked about WWE running Center Stage on July 12 and if there was an arena agreement issue (1FW is running Center Stage on July 25), QT said WWE booked the venue way after he did and believes they paid a lot more. Says he was excited for WWE running the venue because they handed out fliers and they saw a jump in ticket sales after the weekend.

Doesn’t want to live stream events because he doesn’t want wrestlers to be scrutinized when they might be trying or workshopping things.

Says one thing he put his foot down when he returned to AEW was being able to do his own thing with 1FW.

Say working with Big Boom AJ was one of his favorite things of his career and one of the greatest things he did in terms of the overall business of wrestling.