Charlie (Dakota Kai) Recalls WWE Return After First Release To Form Damage CTRL With Bayley & IYO SKY

WWE

Charlie (Dakota Kai) has explained the process of returning to form Damage CTRL with Bayley and IYO SKY in WWE just a few months after being released.

WWE SummerSlam 2022 on July 30 that year saw Bayley, Dakota Kai and IYO SKY debut as Damage CTRL after the Raw Women’s Championship match between Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch.

This was the first major show under Triple H’s creative control as opposed to Vince McMahon’s, and saw Kai return to the company after being released the prior April, with SKY also on the verge of leaving the company before this new group came about.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Charlie, formerly known as Dakota Kai, explained how the whole thing came together from her perspective after being released just a few months earlier.

She said:

“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.’

“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. This.’

“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).

“I was in the mindset of doing things away and outside the company. That’s a big deal to try and fall into that space of being mentally out of there and then Hunter sent a message, I think it was the day before, basically confirming that he loved her idea and that it was going to be Bayley, IYO and myself.

“‘Holy s**t, I need to pack, because it’s the day before, and get my hair done, there’s too much to do. Oh my gosh.’

“And then, yeah, the day of is very chaotic, just hiding in a bus. I’ve never been in that position where I’ve had to be hidden before. I thought that was so cool, because you always see it happen with others, where they have a surprise and they’ve been hiding in the bus or wherever during the day.

“So we got that, and they took us over to Gorilla in a golf cart that had black curtains on the side.”

How Dakota Kai Got Her Name In WWE

Charlie also explained how she got her Dakota Kai ring name in WWE, saying:

“I wanted something tomboy-ish for the first name. There’s not many boy Dakotas, but there are a few. I wanted something like that.

“And then Kai is obviously Pacifica. So I wanted to tie in my Samoan roots with that.

“That was the first name that I kind of pitched to them, and then it was the one that they greenlit. So I was happy about that. And then it just sounded cool.

“I wanted a last name and a first name. Right now, I’ve just got one name (Charlie).”

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• wwe
• bayley
• Dakota Kai
• DAMAGE CTRL
• charlie

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