Since Damage CTRL made their collective debut as a unit at SummerSlam 2022, the faction has taken the WWE Universe by storm. Despite being “designated” to the RAW roster, the faction has routinely popped up on both Mondays and Fridays thanks in no small part to the team of Dakota Kai and IYO SKY winning the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. Bayley and her buddies have consistently found ways to remain relevant on television, even if Ms. Ding Dong, Hello! hasn't found much success in the ring as a solo singles wrestler, and as time pushes on, it's clear they aren't going away anytime soon.
And yet, while Damage CTRL's mileage may vary from fan to fan, the faction almost looked very different within the ranks of WWE, as, according to Kai, Bayley pitched multiple different versions of the faction over the years, including a few with performers who now stand opposite the group as their most bitter of rivals, as she detailed on Getting Over, per a transcription from Fightful.
“From the very start, when she [Bayley] first messaged me a couple years before, it was myself, Candice LeRae, and Tegan (Nox),” Kai said. “Those were the ones that were from the start. Obviously, things have happened from then until now that have changed. The photos and stuff we took earlier this year it was myself, IYO, Kay Lee Ray [Alba Fyre] and Raquel Gonzalez [Raquel Rodriguez]. That was like the updated version of that. Then, when she finally repitched it again in a last-ditch effort when Triple H basically came to the company again, she sent him those photos of the five of us and his first response was like, ‘What's Dakota doing right now?' I felt really overwhelmed that he thought of me. That was the evolution of that.”
Wow, could you even imagine a heel faction with Bayley, Kai, Ray/Fyre, and Rodriguez? Or how about just Bayley, Kai, LeRae, and Nox, who, fittingly enough, returned to WWE to fight the faction now sporting multi-colored hair and star makeup on her face? While the exact make-up of the group may not have had a firm composition, which implies that they were brought together more as a concept than for a specific feud/to pursue a specific belt – WWE really needs to add a men's and women's trio's title – the idea of bringing a faction together in order to put over more female performers is never a bad idea.
Dakota Kai details her lack of interest outside of WWE.
Speaking of Kai's transitional period between the end of her NXT run and her surprise return at SummerSlam, elsewhere in her talk with Getting Over, she was asked about the sort of external interest she drew from companies outside of WWE, presumably AEW and Impact. Did Paul “Triple H” Levesque have to outbid Tony Khan and Scott D'Amore to secure Kai's services? Based on her recollection, it certainly doesn't sound that way, as transcribed by Fightful once more.
“The talks never got super far, but we definitely touched base,” Kai said. “I didn't hear anything for a few weeks until Triple H contacted me. There were a few independent promotions here and there, but it was ‘lax talks,' I would say. They never progressed to anything further. At that point in time, I had waited a few weeks. I think it was meant to be when Triple H called me because, at that time, I felt good, I felt ready to get back in the ring, and sure enough, this guy calls and wants me back. Yeah, there were talks.”
Alright, so based on her comments with Getting Over, it sounds like independent promotions reached out to Kai, who was going to wrestle under the name “King Kota” on the indies after using the “Evie” name during her runs in PWWA, IPW, and Shimmer pre-WWE, but she never got far enough along in the process to actually book any indie bouts following her “farewell” championship match with Mandy Rose on the April 12th edition of NXT 2.0. It also doesn't sound like Kai received any “real” interest from Khan or D'Amore between April and August, when she returned at SummerSlam, at least according to her comments on the podcast.
Ultimately, whether Kai received interest from AEW or Impact is irrelevant as she's in WWE now, and that's really where she belongs. She has an extensive history in the promotion, is a legit NXT legend, and is now a two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion, having defeated the duo of Alexa Bliss and Asuka to recapture the straps after less than a week without them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsrjpUZQGlY
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