Rumored Backstage Reason WWE Released Dakota Kai

Publish date: 2024-05-17

While wrestling fans are shocked by the news that Dakota Kai was among the NXT 2.0 names released by WWE on Friday, it's possible Kai actually knew this release might have been coming. According to a recent report, it is believed Kai might have been aware of her impending release for a few weeks, if not months.

According to wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer, the decision to let Kai go was made after several dark match tryouts in which she didn't impress the higher-ups in the company. Apparently, after taking a closer look at her work, Meltzer says that management didn’t see her as someone with main roster ability and as such, didn't see a reason to keep her on the roster, especially considering the length of time she had already spent in NXT and there was no other option than a roster promotion.

Related: Main Roster Releases Rumored Following NXT's Major Budget Cuts

Kai had been with NXT since 2015. She wrestled under the name Evie before getting her first contract in 2016 and then gained a bit of fame as part of the Mae Young Classic. Unfortunately, long-standing talents in NXT are not seen as a good thing these days by WWE. The idea behind the promotion is to develop stars and move them up. If there's no place for them on Raw or SmackDown, the next step is to move them on. It appears that happened with Dakota Kai.

There is also some speculation that what WWE has as a vision for the talents in their women's division didn't exactly match what Kai could offer. It's not clear if that was size-related or a style of work in the ring, but a decision was made after a SmackDown dark match with Aliyah, and then several more dark matches to end 2021 and start 2022.

Perhaps Fans Should Have Seen This Coming

While it is customary for a leaving NXT star to put over a talent on the rise in NXT, Kai had lost several matches this year before reuniting with Raquel Rodriguez. Their title run as a tag team ended quickly and Rodriguez was moved up to SmackDown. Perhaps when Rodriguez was promoted, that was the end of the line for Kai.

Fightful also reported that Kai had planned not to sign a new deal with WWE. It sounds like she had come to terms on her future having to be elsewhere if she ever wanted to take a major step forward.

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