15 Ups & 6 Downs For WWE NXT In 2019
4. Dakota Kai's Turn
This was the best heel turn of 2019.
In NJPW, WWE escapee KENTA turned on friend and mentor Katsuyori Shibata to join Bullet Club as his shocking G1 Climax came to an even more shocking conclusion, but the payoff between those two hasn't come in time for Wrestle Kingdom, so will it come at all? Meanwhile, AEW delivered the predictable (in the best way) MJF switch at Cody's expense, but many posited that it actually came too soon - a feeling confirmed somewhat by how they've faltered on the immediate follow-through.
Kai's brutal assault of tag team partner, best friend and WarGames comrade Tegan Nox was perhaps the biggest booking victory of NXT's entire year. Both the New Zealander and Welsh star had lost time to injury before post-Summer returns, and had tagged together in a spirited loss to The Kabuki Warriors to establish that they at least had each other as support through testing returns to the ring. It all changed in plain sight whilst everybody else looked another way.
Kai wasn't selected for Rhea Ripley's WarGames squad despite her best efforts, whilst Nox looked on, acceptant of the decision in spite of her friend's bitter disappointment. She really, really wanted it, didn't get it, and completely snapped. Getting in via an attack on Mia Yim away from view, Kai revealed the extent of her planned rage in a brutal assault on her friend's surgically repaired knee.
Amidst thunderous boos, only the piercing wails of Nox's screams could be heard - and they've replayed as part of her callous new entrance ever since.