Bayley has spoken openly about Dakota Kai’s departure from WWE this past April, believing she still had a lot to offer the company.
Dakota Kai was one of a handful of NXT Superstars cut from the promotion on 29 April, ending her six-year run with the company. The move came as a shock, given Kai’s stance as one of the brand’s top female Superstars and timely rumours that she was main roster-bound.
She’s back in WWE under the Triple H regime, however, joining Bayley and IYO SKY in the Damage Control trio. Bayley addressed how she felt when Kai was initially released during BT Sport’s The Run-In, feeling that Dakota was cut before she could properly prove herself:
“She has so much to give. She was just getting to the peak of her career, and the fact that she was let go hurt me personally because she’s such a good friend of mine even before WWE and all this. And just the fact that we were letting someone so talented go. I was just one of the times I was getting on a flight to go home from Orlando; I was there for rehab, and I didn’t feel like getting into the flight.”
Bayley continued, explaining how she personally reached out to Dakota Kai after hearing about her release:
“I felt like going to her house and check on her, and I ended up sending her a bunch of crap she makes fun of me for. She was like ‘I didn’t die, I’m fine’.”
Dakota Kai returned to WWE at SummerSlam, joining Bayley and IYO SKY in the Damage Control faction. Kai and IYO have since become one of the main roster’s top tag teams, recently missing out on the vacant Women’s Tag Team Championships, albeit controversially.
Elaborating on her relationship with Dakota Kai and IYO SKY, Bayley believes it’s a “dream come true” to be working alongside the former NXT Superstars:
“Being able to do this alongside her and IYO [SKY] is the ultimate dream come true. If I was on the outside of this, I would want to be on her team, or I would be like I want to have a match with them because they are so talented. It feels like I’m learning from them every day. It’s just a dream come true.”
The newly-named Damage Control trio was successful over Asuka, Alexa Bliss, and the Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair at Clash At The Castle. With the pin, Bayley became the first Superstar to pin Bianca since the 1 November broadcast of Monday Night Raw.