Dakotai Kai today confirmed the nature of a leg injury sustained at an NXT live show in Green Bay, Wis. late last year. After weeks of rumor and speculation, Kai tweeted today that she has indeed torn her ACL, just before undergoing surgery to repair the damaged ligament.
As Diva Dirt previously reported, the injury occurred during a six-person tag match at the live event. Kai was teaming with Candice LeRae and the former NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane in a bout with current champion Shayna Baszler and her fellow Four Horsewomen of MMA, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. She went down in a corner and the referee threw up the dreaded “X” signal. Kai was removed from the match, which was then resumed as a standard tag match.
Dakota Kai is close friends with Welsh wrestler Tegan Nox, who was forced to sit out the inaugural Mae Young Classic due to an ACL injury. Nox advanced to the quarter-finals of last year’s Mae Young Classic, only to suffer a second knee injury during her match with Rhea Ripley. Kai and Nox have competed as tag partners at NXT live shows, and tweet often about getting the band back together to claim the WWE Women’s Tag Championships, which were revealed earlier this week. Kai stated in her tweet that she “put off posting this because [she] wanted to focus on being home for the holidays” and “didn’t want to let [anyone] down”.
Kai previously competed at indie promotions under the ring name Evie before adopting the “Dakota Kai” moniker prior to the inaugural Mae Young Classic, where she was a quarter-finalist. As Evie, she was the inaugural women’s champion at Auckland-based Impact Pro Wrestling, as well as an Artist of Stardom Champion along with fellow Mae Young Classic alum Hiroyo Matsumoto and the now-retired Kellie Skater. Kai appeared in the women’s battle royal at WrestleMania 34, along with several other NXT stars.
Diva Dirt wishes Dakota Kai all the best in her recovery and hopes to see the Captain of Team Kick back in the ring as soon as is safe.
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