WWE: WWE Announced Dakota Kai Suffered Torn Meniscus Injury, Dragon Lee Absence Update, More News

Dakota Kai Injury Status Update – Kai Suffered Torn Meniscus Injury

As noted before, the August 5th WWE RAW show in Baltimore, Maryland featured Dakota Kai being attacked in a backstage angle involving Sonya Deville, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark. This storyline injury angle was WWE’s way of writing out Kai due to her recently suffering a legitimate injury.

During Monday’s RAW show in Austin, Texas, RAW commentator Michael Cole provided an update stating that Kai is currently expected to be out of action for eight to ten weeks due to a torn meniscus injury. Cole also stated that Kai is currently scheduled to undergo surgery to repair her knee.

WWE has announced that Dakota Kai will be out for 8 to 10 weeks with a torn meniscus and will require surgery. pic.twitter.com/WoWKZEYIkN

— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) August 13, 2024

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Dragon Lee WWE Absence Status Update

Dragon Lee has been noticeably absent from WWE programming since this past June with the exception of WWE’s tour of Mexico this past July.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that the reason for Lee’s recent absence is not due to any injury related issues and instead is simply due to WWE creative currently not having any plans for him for their RAW brand.

Lee reportedly was in attendance backstage at this past Monday’s WWE RAW show and was scheduled to compete for WWE’s Main Event tapings that took place prior to the start of the show.

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WWE News & Notes

Monday’s WWE RAW show in Austin, Texas featured WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry and his son Jacob Henry shown in attendance in the crowd. This was Mark’s first appearance in WWE since January of 2021 and Jacob’s on-screen debut appearance in WWE.

Besides Mark Henry and his son, former WWE talent Candice Michelle was also among those in attendance at Monday’s WWE RAW show in Austin.

WWE held two matches for this week’s Main Event tapings prior to the start of Monday’s RAW show in Austin. The first match was a singles match of Oba Femi defeating Dante Chen. The second match was a singles match of Ludwig Kaiser defeating Dragon Lee.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE recently updated the Coaches page for their Performance Center’s official website. Johnson reported that Shawn Michaels is now listed under his proper title of Senior Vice President, Talent Development. Johnson also reported that Christopher Girard (also known as Oney Lorcan), AJ Winkler (also known as Alexander James) and Corey Weston (also known as Wesley Blake) were officially added to the coaches list and Ryan Kaz was officially added under his current title of Director, NXT Creative Operations.

The CW announced that they and Grey Media have recently renewed their affiliation contacts with 38 television stations across the United States. It was announced that these stations cover 10% of the total television audience in the United States and 12 million homes in total.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials currently have plans for AJ Styles to make his return to WWE television before their Bash In Berlin event on August 31st. Johnson reported that WWE officials had originally scheduled for Styles to return at this past Friday’s SmackDown show but dropped those plans due to them not feeling it was not the right week to do it.

Kevin Owens announced on Twitter that Monday was the 10th anniversary of his signing with WWE.

WWE recently announced that Roman Reigns will be making an appearance at this Friday’s SmackDown show on August 16th in Orlando, Florida.

As noted before, NXT talent Damon Kemp’s contract with WWE expired this past July. Kemp, real name Bobby Steveson, recently provided an update on Twitter stating that his contract with WWE officially expired on Monday and he is officially a free agent. Kemp stated “As of today I am no longer contracted with WWE. I want to wrestle anywhere and everywhere. For bookings/appearances contact damonkempmgmt@gmail.com.“

In a recent interview with Newsweek, Paul Heyman gave his thoughts about the future of professional wrestling. Heyman stated “An era more of continued transparency.  Intelligent discussion of the product itself. Authenticity, in terms of the characters. And just great stories.  What’s next for professional wrestling is the same thing that built wrestling’s greatest highs in the attitude era, in 1984 with the expansion, in the ’70s when the territories were on fire, in the ’50s on the DuMont network, dating back to 1905 with Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt.  It’s the same thing that broke the Yankees and the Red Sox rivalry. The Lakers and the Celtics. The Chicago Bulls and everybody in the NBA in the 1980s. The Pittsburgh Steelers against the Dallas Cowboys.  “Who are these people? Why are they fighting? Why should I care enough to pay to see it? You answer those three questions, you have a viewer. You have a ticket buyer. You have a network subscriber. You have a t-shirt purchaser.“

Following Monday’s WWE RAW show, WWE held a digital exclusive backstage interview with Bron Breakker discussing his thoughts about his victory over Sami Zayn to retain his Intercontinental Championship. Breakker stated “I think I proved to the world tonight, lot of people been saying for a long time that Bron Breakker’s the future of the business. I proved tonight that the future of the business is here, now. This is my Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. It will stay here as long as I have a say-so. I proved that I’m the next guy up, that I’m that dude, that I’m that dog. It is my time, the badass era is here now. To all comers and to all superstars that want a piece of me, want a piece of this championship, I said it last week, I’ll say it again. See that? That is my name [on the title], it’s not going anywhere.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)