Dakota Kai reveals Bayley’s original pitch for an all-women’s faction in WWE
Dakota Kai revisited her WWE return at SummerSlam 2022 citing how Bayley pushed for her return as a part of an all-women’s faction. She also revealed two other names originally considered but ultimately were not a part of the group.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on the latest Insight Podcast episode, Kai discussed her WWE return, forming Damage CTRL with Bayley and IYO SKY. Bayley called and informed her about the pitch she made to Triple H about the women’s only faction. Kai was uncertain given how it was during her first release from the company.
“That whole thing came out of the blue. It was probably two days before SummerSlam, and Pam, Bayley, just texts me out of the blue. She’s like, ‘Hey, I just pitched this to Hunter.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So she was talking about an all-women’s faction for years, like, since I was starting at NXT, she’d always been pitching this idea of, ‘I want an all-women’s faction. Think this would be so cool. I hope we get the chance.’”
Kai revealed that a year before that SummerSlam, Bayley was pushing for the same pitch including Raquel Rodriguez and Alba Fyre in the fold.
“And then the year before SummerSlam, we actually were at the Performance Center. It was me, IYO Bayley, and also Raquel and Alba Fyre, and we were taking photos together as a female unit to try and have Pam basically pitch to Hunter and be like, ‘Hey, this is what I want.’”
“Nothing really came from that. But then she texts me a few days before SummerSlam, ‘I pitched it again, I really want you to be a part of this.’ And even at that point, I’m not with the company. I’m like, ‘Yeah, right, dude. You really think this is gonna happen?’ And then next thing (it happened).”
In May last year, Kai was released from WWE ending her three-year run stint. She stepped away from wrestling for a while before making her in-ring return in December, using the ring name Charlie. Kai competed at Wrestle Queendom VIII taking on Kris Statlander for the Pro-Wrestling: EVE International Championship.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
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