Recently, The Sportster posted an article titled “Is Bayley’s Damage CTRL Faction A Flop In WWE?” Listing many points that point towards “yes” being the answer to that question. Once the article hit social media, many, if not all of the replies were filled with baffled fans ready to dismiss claims of Damage CTRL being a flop and I’d have to agree. So, Sportster, meet BodySlam. I have a counter argument.
During this piece, I will go through each point made and answer with a counter point. Firstly, it was stated that Damage CTRL, consisting of Bayley, IYO SKY and Dakota Kai lack chemistry. Well, I disagree. While Dakota and IYO have interacted on opposite ends of the ring before in NXT and neither have crossed paths with Bayley before this, this doesn’t mean this is exactly a random team thrown together. On paper? sure. But, Bayley has explained publicly her fandom of both IYO and Dakota, as well as her friendship dating back years and years with Dakota Kai in real life, even mentioning that she sent Dakota flowers when she was released initially. Not to mention this faction was pitched and turned down in the past, but the faction is here for a reason. Bayley, the main roster star, took two girls from NXT who were not being used to their full potential at all and quickly put them under her wing to show just how great they really are and if WWE can’t see it, they’re just going to wreck everything until they have no choice but to take notice. So, real life friendships and taking two women under her wing, shows that the trio has some sort of chemistry in real life, but does it translate to on-screen? Yes. In the ring Dakota and IYO have chemistry against each other as we’ve seen many times in NXT. Now, when they tag, the chemistry is still there. From their trios matches and pulling off epic tag team moves with Bayley like Dakota and Bayley assisting IYO on a spring board moonsault, or their swift, fast pace tag team maneuvers as a duo, these ladies have yet to put on a bad match as a team and have more than pulled their weight on the main roster, i’d even go as far to say they’ve made a few of their opponents look better in the ring in the process. It was stated in the sportster article that only Bayley has skills on the mic, which is up for debate considering IYO SKY doesn’t have perfect English, but the heel trio can use IYO to get point across via emotions in her tone of voice while speaking Japanese, even if we can’t understand it. Dakota on the other hand, is perfectly fine at speaking. Sure, she’s not up to par with Bayley, but that’s not the worst thing in the world when Bayley is arguably the best speaker on the entire women’s roster. Plus, if truly needed, Bayley could be the mouth piece for them as a trio and it would work perfectly fine. Mic-skills when you have Bayley as a partner is a non-issue.
The next point was about Bayley not being in the ring as much since her return from injury at SummerSlam and points out that she’s only had four singles matches, making her feel like more of a special attraction or a manager. Well, one, she is a special attraction because she’s one of the best in WWE. Plus, as a heel group, Bayley doesn’t need to wrestle when she has two crew members in Dakota and IYO to do her bidding for her. Not to mention, In just her second match back, Damage CTRL picked up a trios victory which happened to be against Alexa Bliss, Asuka and the RAW Women’s Champion, Bianca Belair. In singles competition she beat Aliyah and Raquel, two people who were headed for tag team gold and were former champions at this point, defeated former multi-time champion Alexa Bliss and newcomer Shotzi. Bayley has been undefeated on television since her return. Bayley has defeated any potential contender on the RAW brand including the champion and everyone else she hasn’t faced yet, is actively losing or on the shelf. Bayley is more deserving of a RAW women’s title match than anyone else on the roster so to say she isn’t, is blasphemy in itself. Not to mention, the last person Bayley faced before her injury was Bianca Belair, who beat her in a SmackDown women’s title match, so consider this a comeback for revenge.
Next up it was noted that Dakota Kai and IYO SKY aren’t being booked well. We’re going to give the writer of the sportster article a win in one aspect here. They pointed out that they had Kai and SKY fight their way through a women’s tag team title tournament as the new dominant team on the block, just to lose in the finals to a makeshift tag team in Raquel and Aliyah and to that, I agree, the booking on WWE’s part when it came to this tournament was utterly stupid. But, if you believe this one hiccup in the road makes them a flop, then maybe your mind will never change. For me, and many other fans, despite that tournament ending being dumb as hell, didn’t bury Damage CTRL in the mud. They then went on to win their first PPV match at Clash At The Castle with Bayley, then a little over a week later, defeated Aliyah and Raquel to take the titles from them after they initially lost due to the illegal competitor being pinned. Then, after winning the gold for the first time, they each have only had one singles TV match, Dakota losing to Raquel before Bayley got revenge for her, and IYO losing to the RAW Women’s Champion, Bianca Belair, ahead of Bayley and Bianca’s PPV match. Only losing one singles match each but continuing to dominant as a team and a trio certainly isn’t a flop, especially when the people you lose to are women you’re currently feuding with and one happens to be the world champion.
In the end, I revert back to the fact that this team only debuted at SummerSlam which was just shy of two months ago. Kai and SKY just won the Tag Team Gold less than one month ago and their head honcho, Bayley, has a RAW Women’s Title Ladder Match coming up on Pay-Per-View in a weeks time. Sure, Damage CTRL has room for improvement but they’re just getting started. Let the trio settle in as a team for at LEAST a few more months before calling them a flop, to make that big of an assumption off less than 10 TV matches combined as a trio is absolutely asinine. So, to answer your question, is Damage CTRL a flop? No. No, they are not. Bayley, Dakota Kai and IYO SKY will continue to prove why they’re three of the best on the roster individually and just as dominant as a team. Don’t rush, give it time and certainly don’t lose hope before their reigns have truly started.
Be sure to check back with Bodyslam.net for all your wrestling news.
If you enjoy Bodyslam’s content, you can help donate to the site here. You can also visit our PWTees store and buy Bodyslam official merchandise here.
You can listen to all of Bodyslam’s podcasts by following us on Spotify and subscribing to our YouTube Channel, or any of your favorite podcast platforms.
