Former WWE Champion Responds To Injury-Prone Reputation

An ex-WWE Champion has addressed fans’ sentiments that label her as injury-prone.

Charlie, fka Dakota Kai, had multiple stints with the Stamford promotion, where she became a 2-time Women’s Tag Team Champion and won the NXT tag titles as many times.

Charlie is also known for her role in the Damage CTRL faction, comprising Bayley, IYO SKY, Asuka, and Kairi Sane, which operated between 2022 and 2025.

After being released from the company for the first time in April 2022, she was rehired in July of the same year. Her final release came on May 2, 2024.

Following her release, the former WWE star did not wrestle for over a year despite claiming that she missed being in the ring.

Her return to the squared circle came on 8 March 2026 in Pro Wrestling: EVE, an independent women’s wrestling promotion in the UK. In the match, she faced former AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander.

On April 16, she faced ex-WWE talent Shotzi Blackheart for the House of Glory Women’s Championship at HOG Culture Clash 2026 pay-per-view in a losing cause.

Ex-WWE Champion Addresses Being Labeled Injury-Prone

During her WWE tenures, Charlie sustained multiple legitimate injuries, including two torn ACLs, a torn meniscus, and a concussion, which kept her out of action at different junctures in her career.

The injuries earned her the notoriety of fans, often labeling her as injury-prone.

While recently speaking on the Ring The Belle podcast, the 38-year-old wrestler claimed that she understood where the fans came from when they called her injury-prone.

Oh yeah, I do get that a lot. I understand it though because I did have a bout of injuries and things like that so it was just bad luck on my end, and it’s one of those things that will just always unfortunately be. Fair.

But I think a lot of people go through it too that haven’t had injuries as well, and it is what it is. It’s just one of those things and it does tend to get to me sometimes too because I’m like, ‘No, no, I’m freaking strong’ or whatever but, that’s just the perception they have and all I can do is go out there and continue to do matches and hopefully change the perception of that.

But I did have a bad bout for a second there. It was just bad luck and yeah, it is what it is. [H/T: Ringside News]

Charlie admitted that she was unfortunate to have suffered those injuries. She also hoped to change fans’ perception of her by wrestling consistently and keeping injuries at bay.