Peyton Royce. Cassie Lee. KC Cassidy.
Cassandra Arneill has gone by many names during her career. But she’s added another within the past few years: mom. She and her spouse Shawn Spears (Ronnie Arneill) have two children.
But motherhood doesn’t get the cheers that entering the squared circle does.
Arneill will return to the ring this Saturday, March 1 for Smash Wrestling at the Rec Room in downtown Toronto. This will be her first match since October 2023 as she’d taken time off for the birth of her second child.
The Smash show will not conflict with WWE’s Elimination Chamber, as the show will begin at 2pm and organizers are aiming for a 4:30pm finish. This will give fans enough time to cross the street to Rogers Centre for the highly-anticipated WWE PLE.
Also slated to appear at Smash this Saturday are Raj Dhesi (fka Jinder Mahal in WWE), as TNA’s tag team Sinner and Saint.
As for Arneill, the Australian will take on Toronto’s Alexia Nicole, who recently made her own return to the promotion on February 1.
In an email interview with SlamWrestling.net, Arneill (nee McIntosh) spoke about her return to the ring. “The nerves are a natural emotion for anyone who cares about what they do,” she said. “It’s not debilitating.”
“It just reminds me [that] I love what I do. I train every week at Flatbacks here in Florida to stay at the top of my game. If I didn’t have nerves, I’d question if I really want to be doing this.” Flatbacks is a wrestling school in Florida, about 20 minutes north of downtown Orlando, run by Ronnie Arneill (Shawn Spears/Tye Dillinger) and Matthew Clement (Tyler Breeze).
Getting back into the ring should seem like an easy task in comparison. However, that’s not to say Arneill isn’t nervous. Nerves can be debilitating for some. But it’s how people control them that prevents being phased by them.
Peyton Royce (Cassie Lee) celebrates the Iiconics winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 35 on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. Photo by Steve Argintaru, Twitter/Instagram: @stevetsn
“I’m very excited to be wrestling Alexia Nicole this weekend in Toronto for Smash Wrestling. My first time on the indies, I did mostly singles wrestling. That was over 10 years ago now so I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
That isn’t the only challenge she’s recently been navigating.
As well as singles competition, she is re-uniting with best friend and tag-team partner Jessica McKay for a match WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas.
The best friends and tag-team partners left TNA at the same time.
“We are wrestling Nicole Matthews and Kylie Rae at Prestige in Las Vegas. It’ll be our first time tagging since our last match with TNA in early 2023. We’ve been training together at Flatbacks for a while now and have loved getting back into it together.”
In the mean time, Arneill makes her return to the squared circle this Saturday in Toronto, as fitting a place as any for the 16-year veteran. To match the nerves she’s feeling, what better emotion to have than excitement?
“We’re really excited to put our gear on, hear our banger of an entrance song and strut our way to the ring to wrestle with some of the best women out there.”
TOP PHOTO: The IIconics (Jessica/Billie McKay and Cassie Lee/Peyton Royce) at The Big Event fan fest on Saturday, November 9, 2024, at the Suffolk Credit Union Arena in Brentwood, NY. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
RELATED LINKS
- Oct. 20, 2021: The Iinspiration have arrived in Impact
- Apr, 15, 2021: WWE releases include Samoa Joe, James, Green, Iiconics
- Jul, 13, 2020: RAW: A night of grudge matches
- Apr. 26, 2018: Madison Eagles and the Australian Women’s Invasion
- Smash Wresting website
- Tickets to Smash Wrestling March 1
