Dakota Kai Talks Being Afraid Of Heel Turn, COVID-19 Era Schedule Change, Missing Fans In The Crowd

WWE NXT Superstar Dakota Kai recently spoke with Melenie Parkes of Stuff to promote her upcoming title match with NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai at the "Takeover: XXX" event.

Kai is enjoying her current run as a heel on the NXT brand, but admitted that at first she was afraid of the turn because it's outside of her comfort zone. Kai added that the heel turn has been a breath of fresh air.

"It was scary because it's something out of my comfort zone," Kai admitted. "But I really love challenges. I love being offered something different. And it was such a breath of fresh air from what I was doing in NXT, too. So I love it. I do still get a bit nervous in terms of whether or not I'm doing things right with my character, but I love it because it offers so many cool new challenges for me."

Kai also talked about the change in the NXT schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She confirmed that NXT talents must take a coronavirus test the day before filming.

"It's obviously such a change of pace to what we were doing before," she said. "To give you a blueprint of how we used to run events, we would film TV live every Wednesday. And then every second weekend we would travel out of state to do four live shows each night, four nights in a row. Obviously, we're not doing that right now. So it's very, very weird. So we're filming two episodes every second Wednesday. And that's pretty much all we're doing."

While WWE's main roster is preparing to begin their longterm residency at the Amway Center in Orlando, the NXT brand will continue to run from the NXT Arena on the campus of Full Sail University. Kai talked about how it's "weird" taping with no fans in the crowd. Kai said she really misses the fans.

"It is so weird and it really makes you realize how much you miss that environment and how much the fans really are a part of everything we do," Kai said. "Because the fans and their reactions, they make the moments for us in the ring. I really miss having fans. But we still have our TV audience. We have hundreds of thousands of people watching us so, at the end of the day, they are our priority."