WWE SummerSlam 2022 may widely be known for the scene of Brock Lesnar lifting the ring with a tractor, but for ladies’s wrestling fans, it is also remembered for the launch of a brand recent stable. The group, consisting of Bayley, Dakota Kai, and IYO SKY, materialized within the immediate aftermath of Bianca Belair’s successful WWE Raw Women’s Championship title defense on the premium live event. In response to Kai, though, its true origins date back to the years prior.
“That whole thing got here out of the blue,” Kai told “Insight With Chris Van Vliet.” “It was probably two days before SummerSlam, and Bayley just texts me out of the blue. She’s like, ‘Hey, I just pitched this to Hunter.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So she was talking about an all-women’s faction for years. Since I used to be starting at NXT, she’d all the time been pitching this concept of I would like an all-women’s faction. I believe this might be so cool. I hope we get the prospect.”
“After which the 12 months before SummerSlam, we actually were on the Performance Center. It was me, IYO, Bayley, and in addition Raquel and Alba Fyre, and we were taking photos together as a female unit to try to have [Bayley] mainly pitch to Hunter and be like, ‘Hey, that is what I would like. This.’ Nothing really got here from that.”
Bayley herself previously confirmed that she originally envisioned Damage CTRL as a five-woman group before WWE downsized it to 3. With WWE’s approval for the three-woman iteration, she reached out to Kai, who on the time, resided as a free agent in wrestling. Invested within the creative idea, Kai then quickly agreed to a brand new contract with WWE and made her return at SummerSlam alongside Bayley and SKY on July 30, 2022.
Kai Recalls The Means of Being ‘Hidden’ Before Damage CTRL Reveal
“I used to be within the mindset of doing things away and outdoors the corporate,” Kai said. “That is a giant deal to try to fall into that space of being mentally out of there after which Hunter sent a message, I believe it was the day before, mainly confirming that he loved her idea and that it was going to be Bayley, IYO and myself. Holy s***, I want to pack, since it’s the day before, and get my hair done, there’s an excessive amount of to do. The day of could be very chaotic, just hiding in a bus. I’ve never been in that position where I’ve needed to be hidden before. I assumed that was so cool, because you mostly see it occur with others, where they’ve a surprise they usually’ve been hiding within the bus or wherever in the course of the day.”
During their period of hiding, Kai recalled the group eventually being dropped at Gorilla position by means of a golf cart covered by black curtains. Of their official reveal, Bayley firstly confronted Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, then introduced Kai and SKY as her recent stablemates. For Bayley, it marked her first appearance since July 2021, when she sustained an ACL injury. For “The Genius of the SKY,” it marked a metamorphosis from Io Shirai into IYO SKY.
Together, all three Damage CTRL members marched into the ring, with Belair locked as their first goal. No physical motion ensued, nonetheless, as Belair’s SummerSlam opponent, Becky Lynch, stepped in to even the chances.
Within the months following, Kai and SKY captured the Women’s Tag Team Championships on two occasions. In 2023, Damage CTRL expanded to 5 member as Asuka and Kairi Sane got here aboard.
As of May 2026, Damage CTRL has been disbanded, with Kai leaving WWE again in 2025 and Sane following suit last weekend.