8 Ups And 1 Down From NXT TakeOver WarGames

5. Not Waiting Around

Dakota Kai
WWE.com

The moment Dakota Kai replaced Mia Yim in the women’s WarGames match, you had to be thinking that she was going to turn on her teammates. The question was, would this be something that dragged on and came at a critical point in the match?

Nope. Kai entered third for her team, presumably to even up the match. But instead of walking the ramp, Dakota emerged from the cage, spun around and hit a running boot on her longtime partner Tegan Nox, flattening her. Kai then proceeded to viciously attack Nox, slamming the cage door on Tegan’s knee, then ripped her brace off.

Kai even slugged GM William Regal for good measure as he tried to pull her off Nox. She quickly returned to sink in a heel hook for good measure, just to really drive home the point.

As heel turns go, this wasn’t completely unexpected (Kai was visibly upset when she wasn’t initially picked for Team Ripley a couple weeks ago), but it was really well done. And Dakota didn’t just go and join the heels She just beat up her friend and left.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.