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Dakota Kai Makes Heartbreaking Confession About WWE Release

By Sridhar Krishnan • Published Feb 13, 2026 08:44 EST
Dakota Kai WWE Raw Netflix red carpet

Dakota Kai is finally ready to step inside a wrestling ring after being away from it for the last several months.

Kai, who has now been repackaged as Charlie, was released from WWE on May 2, following which she decided to take a break.

The 37-year-old often provided updates to her followers via Twitch. About not immediately finding another company to represent, she said that she had been wrestling actively for over 7 years and thought that a break was well-deserved.

But weeks turned into months, and there was no sign of Dakota Kai anywhere until December 2025, when Pro-Wrestling: EVE announced her return as Charlie, as she would compete against AEW’s Kris Statlander at Wrestle Queendom 8.

Dakota Kai was also featured in a vignette, where she talked about her in-ring return while calling Statlander ‘impressive.’

Dakota Kai’s Confession About WWE Release

While recently speaking on the Busted Open podcast with David LaGreca and Nic Nemeth, Dakota Kai was asked about her time away from wrestling and whether she had fallen back in love with the profession.

It was hard. I think I definitely needed to take that sort of step back from it, and I was incredibly grateful for my time at WWE. Everyone I met there and worked with, it’s just …the locker room, especially. I have such a big part of my heart…loved that time, but I think I just really needed to take a step back and could sort of rebuild myself in terms of confidence and what I thought about myself as a wrestler in this world.

I didn’t really know if I still had a place in this world, you know, it’s like one of those things where being in that company, I think, it was sort of a glass ceiling, and I don’t think that’s a unique experience by any means. Everyone sort of has to deal with that in some form, but I would always sort of try and remind myself, like think of yourself in the way that they might, you know, cos it’s just business at the end of the day.

So, I just needed to build my confidence back up, and I think we’re really there, and I’m really excited to get back into the ring. I think that’s just gonna be an amazing, amazing feeling, and I’ll get that passion and why I started this, however many years ago.