By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Dakota Kai
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
You just had your first match in a year last month. How are you feeling about that? “I took almost a year off. I don’t know, I think after leaving WWE, I didn’t want to necessarily rush back into anything. I wanted to get back into wrestling on my terms and just find that passion and that love for it and just do it for fun. Basically, I wanted to do it for fun, and it was just a matter of the perfect time. Then, when Will Ospreay hit me up. He’s basically like, ” We’d love to have you on the show. Here’s what it is. When I found out I’m wrestling Kris Statlander, I’m like, oh my god, perfect. She’s been on my bucket list for years, literal years. So it just worked out. It was weird because during that time off, the longer I was away from wrestling, which was needed for me, personally, just mentally and emotionally, it was like the thought of wrestling again was looming over me. I have very severe performance anxiety, so the longer I was away, the more anxious I got about it. But then she made it so easy, she’s the best.”
Did you have an idea of how long you wanted to be away, because it was almost a year from your last match in WWE to your first indie match?
“There was no real time limit of I want to be away for this amount. It was just more of a feeling, I guess. As soon as the opportunity came up that it was going to be there at that show on the big Wrestle Queendom show against Kris, I was like, Ah, this was meant to be. Yeah, it was cool. I mean, I just really needed to take a step back for me in terms of just finding the passion and the love for it again. I didn’t mean for it to be a year. I know everyone was like, ‘Why did you take a year off?’ I’m like, I didn’t mean to, and for that to be that amount of time, I just kind of took the time I needed. Then, when the opportunity came up to be against Kris, it was perfect.”
Are you looking at some point to maybe get signed somewhere again? “If that happens and everything works out, that would be awesome. But I think at the moment my path right now is just indie bookings here and there, just have fun and wrestle.”
I feel like you’d be a great fit in AEW or TNA. Have you had conversations? “Not necessarily on that level. Yeah, nothing too crazy. But also, I took the time off. So I think getting back into it, they might happen, who knows. But at the moment, I just want to, like, focus on me and just, do you know, fun matches and shows here and there. Yeah, have fun with it.”
Do you have any 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 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 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.”
Stephanie McMahon had some very nice things to say about you on her podcast. Recently, she talked about how you helped her prepare for her WrestleMania 34 match against Ronda Rousey. “Yeah, that’s so weird. I mean, she’s the sweetest person in the world and always said hello to me, but the fact that she remembers that is insane to me. Because I don’t know, again, I don’t look at myself in that light, you know what I mean? But she’s honestly one of the most sweetest people ever, and I was just grateful to be able to be in the ring with [her], training with her and Ronda and Kurt [Angle], and Hunter [Paul Levesque] as well. She got to DDT me. I was like, yes! Beat me up, Stephanie. This is so freaking cool. But she’s the nicest person. I think that was our first ever time meeting. Every time after that, backstage or wherever, she would always make a point to come up to me and be like, ‘Dakota!’ I’m like, Oh my God, you know me.”
How did you get chosen for this? “I think I just got told. I think coach Sarah just pulled me aside one day and was like, hey, you’re going to be flown up to Connecticut to train with Ronda. It was very hush-hush, obviously, because it was their first match. So yeah, just kind of got told that I was getting flown up there to train with them. So that was cool.”
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