Dakota Kai Names Her Dream Indie Opponents, Talks Return To Ring

The former Dakota Kai has returned to the ring on the independent circuit, and she has some notable dream opponents. Charlie made her return after a year away at Pro Wrestling EVE Wrestle Queendom 8 in March. It was her first since she was released from WWE in May of 2025.

Charlie spoke on Insight With Chris Van Vliet about how it felt to come back into the ring and facing Kris Statlander. She also spoke about opponents she wants to face including Willow Nightingale and Steph De Lander. You can see highlights below:

On Her Dream Opponents On the Indies:

“I have dream opponents, just in general. I would love to wrestle Willow Nightingale. I know she’s all over the place right now, but there’s a bunch. Obviously, I’d love to run it back with Shotzi too. And there’s a lot of new, newer girls coming up too, that I just want to be able to wrestle and, not show them the ropes, but help them get to a point where they can have more matches and things like that. So, yeah, I don’t know, it’s so weird. I’ve got a list on my notes app of girlies I want to wrestle. Steph DeLander, another one that I’d love to wrestle again. We kind of had some matches in NXT, but not many. But I would love a singles match with her too, because she’s another one that’s insanely strong and just, I love being able to, like, be rag-dolled around, kind of my thing. But yeah, I don’t know, just having fun with my opponents and just looking at that perspective.”

On How Much She Missed Wrestling After Her First Match Back:

“I was, and I think the longer I was out of wrestling, the more anxious I obviously got. But to have my first match back, because obviously I didn’t plan for it to be a year. It kind of just worked out to be that way. Everyone thinks I’ve retired, and that’s the thing. People so adamantly on social media, which is why I don’t go on there a lot, because I’m like, Oh, you guys just make things up. ‘She’s definitely retired.’ I’m not retired yet! But I think with the year off, I can understand why people were like maybe thinking that way, I wouldn’t just leave people hanging. I’m gonna give them a reason or something. But I think after I had my match against Kris, everything fell into place, and then even being in front of the crowd again, that was something I missed, too.”