Kai replaces Yim at NXT TakeOver: WarGames, turns heel

Changes to the NXT TakeOver: WarGames card prior to the show’s start foreshadowed a turn during the broadcast.

Mia Yim was shown laid out backstage during the TakeOver preshow. As she was being put in an ambulance, NXT GM William Regal asked team captain Rhea Ripley what she would do. Ripley turned to Dakota Kai, who was ready to leave in the ambulance with Yim, and told her she was in. Originally, Kai was passed over by Ripley for inclusion in the team in favor of Yim. 

Kai later turned on her team when it was time for her to enter the match. Kai instead destroyed Tegan Knox, laying her out and ramming the door of the cage they were kept in into one of her previously injured knees. Knox has spent the last couple of years on the shelf following a number of ligament tears in both knees. 

This left Shayna Bazler’s team with a 4 on 2 advantage. Despite this, Rhea Ripley and Candice LeRae were able to score the victory after Ripley landed the riptide on Baszler through a number of chairs that were already set up.