Dakota Kai Explains Why She Took Her Time Following WWE Release

Dakota Kai was a mainstay on NXT for years and then she was released back in April. Like all talents in NXT, she had a 30-day no-compete clause. There were concerns about why she didn’t make her next move sooner.

When Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Kai explained why she took her time in making a decision. Apparently, she was taking it easy and took her time for the next move in her career.

“That was always in the back of my mind, ‘Should I not be hitting the ground running’ in terms of doing Indie promotions and things like that. I just didn’t have it in me to rush in after the 30 days were up and be like ‘boom, boom.’ Obviously, there were talks that were happening, but I think it worked out a lot better for me that I didn’t.

I focused on streaming and something that was more relaxing and something that I love. It all worked out great and I came back into the company refreshed and with a nice outlook on everything that happened instead of trying to be like, ‘I have to do this, this, and this.’ Obviously, that’s good, but for me personally, I wanted to step back and look at everything, reassess, and make sure that…it’s not even about the bookings. I wanted to make sure, in my own mind, I wasn’t going into things just because I was like, ‘I have to capitalize on this’ and ‘after 30 days, I have to do this, this, and this.’ It was definitely a priority for me to worry about myself and how I was feeling,” she said.

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Kai’s return to WWE came after Triple H took over creative and talent relations in the company. She was active on Twitch during her time away, but never jumped to AEW or Impact Wrestling as some fans expected.

Dakota is currently in the faction Damage CTRL with Bayley & IYO SKY, and she’s Women’s Tag Team Champions with the latter. We’ll see what’s next for her and SKY, but Triple H is obviously giving them proper attention.

What do you think of all this? Sound off in the comments!