When it comes to the WWE Universe, no performer has appeared in more WarGames matches than Dakota Kai, the Neapolitan-haired member of Damage CTRL who has appeared in not one, not two, not three, but four different versions of the match, including its main roster debut at Survivor Series in 2022.

While Kai technically won't be wrestling in the match this time, as she is still recovering from an ACL injury that will keep her out of action for the rest of the year at least, she will be at the show, standing in the proverbial corner of her pals Bayley, IYO SKY, Kairi Sane, and Asuka, even if she won't be appearing in the physical cage for obvious reasons.

Still, even if Kai isn't going to be in the match, that doesn't mean she doesn't have plenty to say on the topic, as the one-time Stardom champion has a story for the ages about the match involving “Mr. WarGames” himself, William Regal, who has been missed from the match since he moved to and was released from AEW over the past two years.

“They asked me to do [push Regal], and I'm like, ‘It's literally William Regal, legend, I don't want to get in trouble and do something too far. Too much.' He pulls me aside backstage and is like, ‘I want you to hit me in the face. I want you to punch me in the face. It needs to look like… I need you to punch me.' Coach Sara Amato, legend, overheard this conversation and him telling me this and me standing there, scared s**tless, ‘Yup, I'm going to punch you in the face.' He left, she pulled me aside and was like, ‘Don't punch him in the face,'” Dakota Kai shared on her Twitch stream via Fightful.

“After every match, he's always backstage giving us critiques. He wants legitimacy in this, which is great, we need that. She immediately was like, ‘Don't punch him in the face. Don't do that.' I was like, ‘No, never, I was never going to punch him in the face.' I actually wasn't. We did the shove that we did, which still worked. It worked for what we wanted. It was like a forearm shove, but I put some sauce behind the shove. He didn't need to have me do that, but that was cool. The look he gave me after I did that was very, ‘Oh, I messed up.'”

Now, for fans out of the know, Kai's famous shove came at TakeOver: WarGames in 2019, when, after turning on her long-time friend and teammate, Tegan Knox, “King Kota” gave a right-hearty push to Regal before exiting the area. While this moment clearly can't happen again in 2023, as Regal isn't allowed to appear on television this year for WWE, and Kai won't be able to do much physically, who knows, maybe someone else will reference the turn or the push, someone like, say, a member of Team Bianca Belair, who have collectively wrestled each other far more times than they've worked together before Survivor Series.

Triple H reveals  Vince McMahon's best advice before Survivor Series.

Speaking of members of the WWE Universe going out of their way to promote Survivor Series in the lead-up to the show, Paul “Triple H” Levesque stopped by Sports Illustrated for an interview with Justin Barrasso, where he talked about a wide range of topics in the lead-up to his big-time event at the United Center.

Asked if there were any pieces of advice he received from Vince McMahon in the lead-up to the final Big 4 show of the year, Levesque recalled one nugget of wisdom that he lives by to this day: Book shows like you're a fan in the seats.

“Vince taught me years ago, you put yourself in the seats and you’ll never go wrong. You’ve always got to maintain that perspective. I started out as a fan. Book what people want to feel and see. Writing this stuff is a feel. You can analyze stories and how they come together, but how does it make you feel? If you can make people feel those stories, they’re going to be invested in the product. That’s how we try to approach, find that ultimate emotional place for the talent and the characters and the stories they’re in,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque explained to Sports Illustrated.

“We don’t take our fan base for granted. And the way our talent operates is different from other generations. They want to go out there and put on the best possible show they can. A lot of these kids are already invested–they grew up wanting to do this. And if they didn’t, they fell in love with it by learning from people who grew up wanting to be in this business, and that’s how they learned the respect for it. To me, that’s what makes you successful. That connection with our fan base, that’s a big part of our core.”

Does Levesque – or, in turn, did Mr. McMahon – actually give fans what they want every time? No, for the most part, he does not, as otherwise, LA Knight would have taken the WWE Championship off of Cody Rhodes, who would have taken it off of Sami Zayn, who would have taken it off of Drew McIntyre, who would have taken it off of Roman Reigns at Clash at the Castle in Cardeth, Wales, over the past year alone. Still, actually trying to keep the fans in mind during the booking process is a sound strategy, as it leads to fewer of those “WTF” booking decisions that keep wrestling YouTubers employed and make “10 worst” lists regular view-getters among online wrestling enthusiasts.