Bayley Approached Dakota Kai About Starting A Faction In 2018

WWE star Bayley returned to the company at SummerSlam, bringing with her Dakota Kai and IYO SKY (formerly Io Shirai). 

Though their collective appearance was certainly a surprise, Kai has revealed that Bayley originally came to her with the idea of forming a faction together in 2018. 

Speaking with Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy, the former two-time NXT Women's Tag Team Champion said: 

"Bayley has been talking to me about this idea for years now. We were talking about when I was still in NXT, it was like 2018 when she first brought it up to me and then again at Evolution.

"We just kept like saying, 'This needs to happen, we want this to happen so bad', and obviously the members changed but I was the constant. So I think it's very poetic that it happened at SummerSlam and that her idea that we've been talking about for so long finally happened on such a big stage and with IYO as well, it was an emotional moment for all of us that it finally happened".

Kai and SKY, managed by Bayley, lost to Aliyah & Raquel Rodriguez in the tournament finals to crown new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions on this past Monday's episode of Raw. Before joining up as a faction, Dakota was a free agent having been released by WWE in April, while IYO had been out injured since April's NXT Stand & Deliver event.