{"id":331287,"date":"2026-05-08T15:37:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=331287"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:07:44","slug":"dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Dakota Kai Says 2025 WWE Release Was &#8216;More Of A Shock&#8217; Compared To Previous Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<article class=\"news-post\">\n<div class=\"news-article\">\n<div class=\"slide-key image-holder gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap lead-image-holder\" data-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/2164140\/wwe-dakota-kai-charlie-2025-release-more-shock-previous-exit\/\" data-post-title=\"Dakota Kai Says 2025 WWE Release Was 'More Of A Shock' Compared To Previous Exit\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-post-id=\"2164140\">\n<picture id=\"p5cb1e8167a8a41a3fa990f17b9095df3\"><source media=\"(min-width: 429px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit\/intro-1777918516.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(max-width: 428px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit\/intro-1777918516.sm.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n                    <span class=\"gallery-image-credit\">Jc Olivera\/Getty Images<\/span>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p>Before she was released from WWE in May 2025, Dakota Kai spent three years with one of the vital dominant women&#8217;s faction&#8217;s in the corporate when she joined Damage CTRL alongside Bayley and IYO SKY at SummerSlam 2022. Nevertheless, following her departure from the group, Kai enjoyed a short-lived singles run before getting released from WWE after her involvement within the Women&#8217;s Intercontinental Title tournament to crown its inaugural champion. After having been out of the highlight for a 12 months, Kai has revealed that she was surprised by her WWE release on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/3C7V1y2eaBWxmGOOkrqKU0?si=bb7957600741470a&#038;nd=1&#038;dlsi=69a9e6011726453a\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Insight,&#8221;<\/a> and the way it in comparison with the primary time she was let go from the promotion months before her return at SummerSlam.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In 2022, I got resigned with the\u00a0company throughout the three months. In order that was, I do not know that felt different. With this one here, it almost\u00a0felt like, especially with the IC championship tournament, it felt like we were doing like &#8216;Oh, I&#8217;m getting more opportunities.&#8217; So, it was more of a shock, I assume. But, that is sort of why I needed to take the step back\u00a0only for me and emotionally and things like that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"news-article\">\n<h2 class=\"\">Dakota Kai reveals how she was released from WWE in 2025<\/h2>\n<div class=\"slide-key image-holder gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap \" data-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/2164140\/wwe-dakota-kai-charlie-2025-release-more-shock-previous-exit\/\" data-post-title=\"Dakota Kai Says 2025 WWE Release Was 'More Of A Shock' Compared To Previous Exit\" data-slide-num=\"1\" data-post-id=\"2164140\">\n<picture id=\"p5c232837f72c2a1419df0676f3e371e9\"><source media=\"(min-width: 429px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit\/dakota-kai-reveals-how-she-was-released-from-wwe-in-2025-1777918517.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(max-width: 428px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit\/dakota-kai-reveals-how-she-was-released-from-wwe-in-2025-1777918517.sm.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/dakota-kai-says-2025-wwe-release-was-more-of-a-shock-compared-to-previous-exit\/dakota-kai-reveals-how-she-was-released-from-wwe-in-2025-1777918517.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/2164140\/wwe-dakota-kai-charlie-2025-release-more-shock-previous-exit\/\" data-post-id=\"2164140\" data-slide-num=\"1\" data-slide-title=\"Dakota Kai Says 2025 WWE Release Was 'More Of A Shock' Compared To Previous Exit: Dakota Kai reveals how she was released from WWE in 2025\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Dakota Kai attends the Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix's \"WWE Monday Night Raw\" at Intuit Dome\"><br \/>\n                    <\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n                    <span class=\"gallery-image-credit\">Jc Olivera\/Getty Images<\/span>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p>Kai continued by sharing how she was informed about her release, but was adamant about her gratitude towards the corporate, explaining that she didn&#8217;t think her dream of becoming a WWE star was possible.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A phone call. Yeah, they typically do it like that after which not long after it&#8217;ll be online and things like that. So I needed to like take a step back from social media just cause it&#8217;s lots. Losing a job in any sense is rough, but I never ever thought I&#8217;d make it to WWE anyway. I feel for me the entire experience was similar to a nice surprise and even then coming back in 2022 &#8230; I used to be just very grateful to be there cause I never saw myself in that position in any respect ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kai also didn&#8217;t rule out the potential of returning to WWE, saying that she&#8217;s not interested by burning bridges with the corporate but desires to prioritize what&#8217;s best for her profession first. This past March, Kai returned to skilled wrestling under the name Charlie, where she&#8217;s had matches with Kris Statlander and Shotzi Blackheart on the indie scene.<\/p>\n<p><em>In case you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit &#8220;Insight&#8221; with a h\/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jc Olivera\/Getty Images Before she was released from WWE in May 2025, Dakota Kai spent three years with one of the vital dominant women&#8217;s faction&#8217;s in the corporate when she joined Damage CTRL alongside Bayley and IYO SKY at SummerSlam 2022. Nevertheless, following her departure from the group, Kai enjoyed a short-lived singles run before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21056],"tags":[10805,10405,1475,5063,11961,1905,3856,6221],"class_list":["post-331287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe-and-more","tag-compared","tag-dakota","tag-exit","tag-kai","tag-previous","tag-release","tag-shock","tag-wwe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331290,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331287\/revisions\/331290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}