Tenille Dashwood

Tenille Averil Dashwood was born on March 1, 1989, in Boronia, Victoria, Australia. Her introduction to professional wrestling came at an early age, at 13, she began training in Australia. In 2008, Dashwood moved to Canada to further her training at the Storm Wrestling Academy. She competed on the independent circuit across Australia and North America, under the name Tenille Tayla. In 2009, she debuted for Shimmer Women Athletes and Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW), where she won her first ECCW Supergirls title on August 1, 2009. She recaptured the ECCW Women’s Championship on March 19, 2010. By 2011, Dashwood signed with WWE, becoming the first Australian female wrestler to be signed by the company.

Dashwood’s WWE career, under the ring name Emma, began in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in 2012, later transitioning to NXT. She made her televised NXT debut in November 2012. Emma became a prominent figure in the NXT women’s division, partaking in the inaugural NXT Women’s Championship tournament in 2013. She made her main roster debut on Raw in January 2014, making her the first Australian woman to debut on WWE television. After a return to NXT, she began a heel turn and feuded with several top wrestlers. A shoulder injury in 2016 led to a hiatus and a repackaging as “Emmalina”, a character that was later dropped as she returned as Emma in 2017. Her WWE tenure concluded in October 2017.

Following her WWE release, Dashwood embarked on the independent circuit from 2017 to 2019, including a notable run in Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2018 to 2019, participating in the Women of Honor Championship tournament. In July 2019, she signed with Impact Wrestling, where she engaged in championship pursuits and formed the tag team “The Influence.” Dashwood and Madison Rayne won the Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Championship in March 2022. She made a surprise return to WWE as Emma in October 2022, competing for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and in the Royal Rumble, before being released again in September 2023. She returned to the independent circuit in April 2024 and has also ventured into other media, including a YouTube cooking show “Taste of Tenille” and appearances in film and television.