WWE saw a huge addition to their main roster. Dakota Kai is back, Io Shirai is on the main roster, and Bayley has returned from injury.
Bayley has been training at the WWE Performance Center and Flatbacks for weeks in preparation for her return to the ring. Talent that we spoke to Saturday afternoon believed she would be set to return.
Dakota Kai was brought back to the company, and was a name that several people in the company thought Triple H would make a priority to bring back. Dakota had got several main roster looks and several writers were baffled when she wasn't included in last year's draft pools. We're told she wasn't even informed of her creative plans moving forward. We have heard from multiple companies there was interest in her, but that AEW talks never picked up much past an introduction. There were some on the roster pushing for her to join, but we're not sure why that didn't happen.
Io Shirai's contract was set to expire soon, and there had been no creative plans for her in NXT after her injury. WWE officials couldn't confirm a new contract has been signed beyond saying "it appears so."
If it wasn't obvious, this new stable is a product of the new WWE regime. We've heard that the stable was actually pitched quite a while ago -- before Dakota's release -- and Vince McMahon rejected it. There were other versions pitched that included Raquel and Kay Lee Ray before they got called up and repackaged, respectively.
We're told that the moves came together "very last minute."
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