Dakota Kai Looks Back On Tegan Nox Turn In NXT, Getting Arm Stomped In Shayna Baszler’s Debut

Charlie, formerly known as Dakota Kai, recently reflected on her heel turn on Tegan Nox and being Shayna Baszler’s NXT debut opponent. The WWE alumna famously turned on Nox at NXT TakeOver: War Games in 2019, attacking her teammate before either was able to enter the match before leaving. The turn set up a feud between the two.

Charlie also was the first-ever opponent for Baszler in NXT during the January 10th, 2018 episode of the show. Baszler got the win after the ref stopped the match due to Baszler stomping on her arm. She spoke about both moments during her appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet and you can see highlights below:

On Her Turn On Tegan Nox:

“So I was in NXT probably for a couple of years at that point, and I was like this happy-go-lucky, bubbly babyface, which is a much easier character for me. When I got told about this WarGames situation happening, I didn’t want to get my hopes up, because, you know, things change last minute. You never know. But I wanted, and also needed to make this as vicious as possible, to make the change be believable, if that makes sense. So if you watch it back, it’s quite like intense. I wanted to lock into that, because I really wanted people to believe that I could pull this off. And it was in Chicago too, so the crowd was there. Everything was set up, and that WarGames match without my heel turn was amazing too. You had like the best girls in the black and gold brand like Rhea Ripley, Candice, IYO Shana, so everything was just perfect. It was the perfect melting pot of like, all of us working together. But I needed it to be vicious for the reason of like these people, I need to make them believe that I can be a savage.”

On Being Shayna Baszler’s NXT Debut Match:

“I did, yeah, that’s so funny, because we had so much more planned. But obviously, for her debut match, they wanted her to look like a killer, so it was just literally, boom. Or there was like me trying to do some things, and she just stomped my arm. They played that damn moment in every one of her promo packages for the next four years. I’m just like, we can’t update it? She stomped on so many other girls since then, what are we doing? But it looks sick. Even watching it back, I’m like, damn, all right, freaking double-jointed in my shoulders, I guess maybe, not my knees. I have to laugh. But yeah, it looked nasty, so, yeah, I’ll take it as a compliment.”

On the Small Margin Of Error In the Stomp Spot:

“Yes, because there’s a lot that can go wrong. But obviously, she’s a very trained and skilled fighter too. So when we were going through it, it’s like, okay, your wrist needs to be on the mat like this, and you kind of have to roll into the stomp basically. So it wasn’t just a case of her just doing it. We had to make sure it was all safe, because it does look nasty, and if you set it up wrong things can go wrong for sure.”