Dakota Kai Turning Heel

[Dee Carter]

I don't really want to see this happen. At least right now. Not yet. She and Tegan coming back after heartbreaking injuries, I think you ride that babyface wave with Team Fly Kicks for a while before you turn either of them, if that's what you just absolutely want to do.

[gl83]

It would be an odd decision. I mean the events from this past episode of NXT really made Dakota quite sympathetic and you can't help but feel bad for her. Being rejected by Rhea and mocked by Shayna Baszler; unable to take part in this history-making match; receiving no support at all from her so-called best friends; wrestled her heart out against Shayna for 15 or so minutes and giving Shayna all she can handle while enduring all the damage to her surgically repaired knee; all for nothing as Mia just waltzes in and takes the last spot for herself at the last minute after being m.i.a.(no pun intended) for the past month or so.



I mean if you're going to do a Heel turn, why make us feel bad for them and make the "Heel" sympathetic.

[Chiral]

I don't wanna see Dakota turn either, WWE as a whole has way too many pure faces going heel.

[Totorob101]

WWE seem to have a fetish for turning likeable and actually rootable faces heel. No way in this company should Kairi, Bayley and Dakota be heels while Charlotte us second top babyface.

[clifford]

Nov 8, 2019 10:25:05 GMT -5 gl83 said:

It would be an odd decision. I mean the events from this past episode of NXT really made Dakota quite sympathetic and you can't help but feel bad for her. Being rejected by Rhea and mocked by Shayna Baszler; unable to take part in this history-making match; receiving no support at all from her so-called best friends; wrestled her heart out against Shayna for 15 or so minutes and giving Shayna all she can handle while enduring all the damage to her surgically repaired knee; all for nothing as Mia just waltzes in and takes the last spot for herself at the last minute after being m.i.a.(no pun intended) for the past month or so.



I mean if you're going to do a Heel turn, why make us feel bad for them and make the "Heel" sympathetic.

Unfortunately this is exactly what the WWE seem to do, over and over and over again. ESPECIALLY with female faces.

[gl83]

Nov 8, 2019 11:08:06 GMT -5 clifford said:

Nov 8, 2019 10:25:05 GMT -5 gl83 said:

It would be an odd decision. I mean the events from this past episode of NXT really made Dakota quite sympathetic and you can't help but feel bad for her. Being rejected by Rhea and mocked by Shayna Baszler; unable to take part in this history-making match; receiving no support at all from her so-called best friends; wrestled her heart out against Shayna for 15 or so minutes and giving Shayna all she can handle while enduring all the damage to her surgically repaired knee; all for nothing as Mia just waltzes in and takes the last spot for herself at the last minute after being m.i.a.(no pun intended) for the past month or so.



I mean if you're going to do a Heel turn, why make us feel bad for them and make the "Heel" sympathetic.

Unfortunately this is exactly what the WWE seem to do, over and over and over again. ESPECIALLY with female faces.

It's not like Bayley or Finn Balor where their Face characters have gotten stale and they needed a turn to freshen them up. Dakota just came back and she's been getting good pops consistently and now with all the adversity she's facing you have the basis to make her an even better underdog Face that the fans can rally behind. It's one thing where they have the Heel feel like they are justified in their actions(even though we can see they are in the wrong), it's another when they actually make the Heel completely justified with how everyone basically rejected her and instead of consoling her, they left her to deal with her heartbreak and pain on her own.

[Deleted]

I'm cool with it.

Right now in NXT there's others who have more momentum than she does so she needs something to get her that spark that she used to have. Her teaming with Tegan again sure, that's cool but they already lost to the tag champs so they gotta rebuild. With Shayna, Io, Rhea, Candace, Bianca, there's a lot in the mix here ahead of her. Even Tegan to a degree so yeah, they need to do something with her. If this works then hey it'll work and if it doesn't then hey, it won't.

I'm sure she'll pull it off well.

[nisidhe]

Nov 8, 2019 11:18:56 GMT -5 gl83 said:

Nov 8, 2019 11:08:06 GMT -5 clifford said:

Unfortunately this is exactly what the WWE seem to do, over and over and over again. ESPECIALLY with female faces.

It's not like Bayley or Finn Balor where their Face characters have gotten stale and they needed a turn to freshen them up. Dakota just came back and she's been getting good pops consistently and now with all the adversity she's facing you have the basis to make her an even better underdog Face that the fans can rally behind. It's one thing where they have the Heel feel like they are justified in their actions(even though we can see they are in the wrong), it's another when they actually make the Heel completely justified with how everyone basically rejected her and instead of consoling her, they left her to deal with her heartbreak and pain on her own.

Bayley's heel turn was a while in coming and had been teased after being chumped out perhaps during her entire main-roster run to that point.

WWE, on the other hand, needed only to do one thing with Finn to keep him as a top babyface on the main roster: book him consistently as a winner. If you want evidence that Vince doesn't care about making money through the company's stars and will, in fact, kill the organic momentum of anyone he doesn't like or get, there's your exhibit A. How the hell does _any_ company f*** up the booking on Finn Balor? They answered that question in spades.

[gl83]

Kayfabe-wise it makes sense to turn Dakota Kai Heel as there's plenty of motive(Rhea snubbing her, her friends ditching her,etc.), but from a booking standpoint, it really doesn't. Because the person that you're about to turn Heel, has been painted and portrayed in a very sympathetic light. The fans were really rallying behind her during the match, the commentators were putting over Dakota's performance and how she deserves a Wargames spot, those same fans were upset that Mia got chosen over Dakota and were sad and felt sorry for Dakota as she left Team Ripley behind. This is the type of booking you do for a plucky underdog right before they rebound and claw their way back up, not a Heel turn.



Also, it feels kinda awkward having Mia take the last spot when she hasn't done anything noteworthy for the last month or so or had any interactions at all with any of the women, whereas Rhea, Dakota, Candice & Tegan have been in the thick of it against Shayna, Duke, Shafir, Io & Bianca. If that's intentional then kudos because it really adds to making Dakota a sympathetic figure, while making Mia looking like she got shoe-horned in.

[theironyuppie]

Nov 8, 2019 12:25:19 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Nov 8, 2019 11:18:56 GMT -5 gl83 said:

It's not like Bayley or Finn Balor where their Face characters have gotten stale and they needed a turn to freshen them up. Dakota just came back and she's been getting good pops consistently and now with all the adversity she's facing you have the basis to make her an even better underdog Face that the fans can rally behind. It's one thing where they have the Heel feel like they are justified in their actions(even though we can see they are in the wrong), it's another when they actually make the Heel completely justified with how everyone basically rejected her and instead of consoling her, they left her to deal with her heartbreak and pain on her own.

Bayley's heel turn was a while in coming and had been teased after being chumped out perhaps during her entire main-roster run to that point.

WWE, on the other hand, needed only to do one thing with Finn to keep him as a top babyface on the main roster: book him consistently as a winner. If you want evidence that Vince doesn't care about making money through the company's stars and will, in fact, kill the organic momentum of anyone he doesn't like or get, there's your exhibit A. How the hell does _any_ company f*** up the booking on Finn Balor? They answered that question in spades.

In fairness, Finn getting badly injured during Summerslam 2016 really hurt things for him given he had to give up the Universal Championship. Though given the build to that match went so heavy on the 'Demon King' stuff, there's every chance Vince would have focused even more on it had Finn not gotten hurt.

[nisidhe]

Nov 12, 2019 9:39:26 GMT -5 theironyuppie said:

Nov 8, 2019 12:25:19 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Bayley's heel turn was a while in coming and had been teased after being chumped out perhaps during her entire main-roster run to that point.

WWE, on the other hand, needed only to do one thing with Finn to keep him as a top babyface on the main roster: book him consistently as a winner. If you want evidence that Vince doesn't care about making money through the company's stars and will, in fact, kill the organic momentum of anyone he doesn't like or get, there's your exhibit A. How the hell does _any_ company f*** up the booking on Finn Balor? They answered that question in spades.

In fairness, Finn getting badly injured during Summerslam 2016 really hurt things for him given he had to give up the Universal Championship. Though given the build to that match went so heavy on the 'Demon King' stuff, there's every chance Vince would have focused even more on it had Finn not gotten hurt.

The injury sucked, true. But we saw something Vince didn't see - we saw what a WWE with that man holding that strap could be. The Universal title never felt as important or as epic as during that moment that Finn walked down the aisle the following night, with the belt across his good shoulder, all the greater hero for what he sacrificed in order to secure that one moment. His second run with that title could have been absolutely glorious and cemented him as a deserving and fighting champion and WWE as the pinnacle of the business. Vince had an opportunity to turn that chicken shit situation into a barbecued-chicken sandwich, by building up Finn's recovery so that when he returned, hopefully at Wrestlemania, that moment would have been absolutely unforgettable. Instead, and this should have been clearer to us from the outset looking back, Finn was slowly and quietly buried as he was kept away from title contention, stuck in feuds that either put over his opponents or were dropped quietly rather than give him a decisive long-term gain from them, teasing us with a shot at Lesnar, only to have that hope dashed and replaced with two begrudged and insignificant I-C title reigns.

And now he's back in NXT, supposedly as its Benoit-level veteran, and has turned heel. He's not even involved in the invasion angle in the run-up to Survivor Series.

If they can manage to f*** up a star who could have been their next Cena, if not their next Rock, what hope is there for anyone like Dakota Kai?

[gl83]

Nov 12, 2019 10:04:31 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Nov 12, 2019 9:39:26 GMT -5 theironyuppie said:

In fairness, Finn getting badly injured during Summerslam 2016 really hurt things for him given he had to give up the Universal Championship. Though given the build to that match went so heavy on the 'Demon King' stuff, there's every chance Vince would have focused even more on it had Finn not gotten hurt.

The injury sucked, true. But we saw something Vince didn't see - we saw what a WWE with that man holding that strap could be. The Universal title never felt as important or as epic as during that moment that Finn walked down the aisle the following night, with the belt across his good shoulder, all the greater hero for what he sacrificed in order to secure that one moment. His second run with that title could have been absolutely glorious and cemented him as a deserving and fighting champion and WWE as the pinnacle of the business. Vince had an opportunity to turn that chicken shit situation into a barbecued-chicken sandwich, by building up Finn's recovery so that when he returned, hopefully at Wrestlemania, that moment would have been absolutely unforgettable. Instead, and this should have been clearer to us from the outset looking back, Finn was slowly and quietly buried as he was kept away from title contention, stuck in feuds that either put over his opponents or were dropped quietly rather than give him a decisive long-term gain from them, teasing us with a shot at Lesnar, only to have that hope dashed and replaced with two begrudged and insignificant I-C title reigns.

And now he's back in NXT, supposedly as its Benoit-level veteran, and has turned heel. He's not even involved in the invasion angle in the run-up to Survivor Series.

If they can manage to f*** up a star who could have been their next Cena, if not their next Rock, what hope is there for anyone like Dakota Kai?

But, this is NXT. They're suppose to be better than the main roster.

[nisidhe]

Nov 12, 2019 10:08:43 GMT -5 gl83 said:

Nov 12, 2019 10:04:31 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

The injury sucked, true. But we saw something Vince didn't see - we saw what a WWE with that man holding that strap could be. The Universal title never felt as important or as epic as during that moment that Finn walked down the aisle the following night, with the belt across his good shoulder, all the greater hero for what he sacrificed in order to secure that one moment. His second run with that title could have been absolutely glorious and cemented him as a deserving and fighting champion and WWE as the pinnacle of the business. Vince had an opportunity to turn that chicken shit situation into a barbecued-chicken sandwich, by building up Finn's recovery so that when he returned, hopefully at Wrestlemania, that moment would have been absolutely unforgettable. Instead, and this should have been clearer to us from the outset looking back, Finn was slowly and quietly buried as he was kept away from title contention, stuck in feuds that either put over his opponents or were dropped quietly rather than give him a decisive long-term gain from them, teasing us with a shot at Lesnar, only to have that hope dashed and replaced with two begrudged and insignificant I-C title reigns.

And now he's back in NXT, supposedly as its Benoit-level veteran, and has turned heel. He's not even involved in the invasion angle in the run-up to Survivor Series.

If they can manage to f*** up a star who could have been their next Cena, if not their next Rock, what hope is there for anyone like Dakota Kai?

But, this is NXT. They're suppose to be better than the main roster.

There's only so much that Trips can do to protect his picks from Vince's machinations. Since NXT is being elevated (supposedly) to be equal to Raw and Smackdown, it's really only a matter of time before their stuff is micromanaged to death, as well.

[gl83]

Nov 12, 2019 11:03:16 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Nov 12, 2019 10:08:43 GMT -5 gl83 said:

But, this is NXT. They're suppose to be better than the main roster.

There's only so much that Trips can do to protect his picks from Vince's machinations. Since NXT is being elevated (supposedly) to be equal to Raw and Smackdown, it's really only a matter of time before their stuff is micromanaged to death, as well.

That's sad if that's the case. It really makes no sense to turn her Heel since Dakota has been painted and portrayed in a very sympathetic light. The fans were really rallying behind her during the match, the commentators were putting over Dakota's performance and how she deserves a Wargames spot, those same fans were upset that Mia got chosen over Dakota and were sad and felt sorry for Dakota as she left Team Ripley behind. Last week, the story of the match was Dakota trying to prove her doubters wrong. This is the type of booking you do for a plucky underdog right before they rebound and claw their way back up, not a Heel turn.