WWE SummerSlam 2022 may widely be known for the scene of Brock Lesnar lifting the ring with a tractor, but for women's wrestling fans, it's also remembered for the launch of a brand new stable. The group, consisting of Bayley, Dakota Kai, and IYO SKY, materialized in the immediate aftermath of Bianca Belair's successful WWE Raw Women's Championship title defense at the premium live event. According to Kai, though, its true origins date back to the years prior."That whole thing came out of the blue," Kai told "Insight With Chris Van Vliet." "It was probably two days before SummerSlam, and Bayley just texts me out of the blue. She's like, 'Hey, I just pitched this to Hunter.' I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' So she was talking about an all-women's faction for years. Since I was starting at NXT, she'd always been pitching this idea of I want an all-women's faction. I think this would be so cool. I hope we get the chance.""And then the year before SummerSlam, we actually were at the Performance Center. It was me, IYO, Bayley, and also Raquel and Alba Fyre, and we were taking photos together as a female unit to try and have [Bayley] basically pitch to Hunter and be like, 'Hey, this is what I want. This.' Nothing really came from that."Bayley herself previously confirmed that she originally envisioned Damage CTRL as a five-woman groupbefore WWE downsized it to three. With WWE's approval for the three-woman iteration, she reached out to Kai, who at the time, resided as a free agent in wrestling. Invested in the creative idea, Kai then quickly agreed to a new contract with WWE and made her return at SummerSlam alongside Bayley and SKY on July 30, 2022.
"I was in the mindset of doing things away and outside the company," Kai said. "That's a big deal to try and fall into that space of being mentally out of there and then Hunter sent a message, I think it was the day before, basically confirming that he loved her idea and that it was going to be Bayley, IYO and myself. Holy s***, I need to pack, because it's the day before, and get my hair done, there's too much to do. The day of is very chaotic, just hiding in a bus. I've never been in that position where I've had to be hidden before. I thought that was so cool, because you always see it happen with others, where they have a surprise and they've been hiding in the bus or wherever during the day."During their period of hiding, Kai recalled the group eventually being brought to Gorilla position by way of a golf cart covered by black curtains. In their official reveal, Bayley firstly confronted Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair, then introduced Kai and SKY as her new stablemates. For Bayley, it marked her first appearance since July 2021, when she sustained an ACL injury. For "The Genius of the SKY," it marked a transformation from Io Shirai into IYO SKY.Together, all three Damage CTRL members marched into the ring, with Belair locked as their first target. No physical action ensued, however, as Belair's SummerSlam opponent, Becky Lynch, stepped in to even the odds.In the months following, Kai and SKY captured the Women's Tag Team Championships on two occasions. In 2023, Damage CTRL expanded to five member as Asuka and Kairi Sane came aboard.As of May 2026, Damage CTRL has been disbanded, with Kai leaving WWE again in 2025 and Sane following suit last weekend.
