We got the power. We got the rage. Control the stage. Control the cage.note
Damage CTRL is a professional wrestling stable in WWE, at one time consisted of Bayley, Asuka, Iyo Sky, Dakota Kai, and Kairi Sane. They primarily appear on the SmackDown brand. The group made their debut on July 30, 2022 at SummerSlam, attacking Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch and quickly made a name for themselves. Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai are former WWE Woman's Tag Team Champions with Iyo Sky also a former WWE Women's Champion. Bayley herself would add to the group's ranks by winning the 2024 Royal Rumble, while Sane and Asuka won the group their 3rd Tag Team Championship a night prior.
On the February 2nd, 2024 edition of SmackDown, after months of building internal friction, Bayley's attempt to confront the rest was met by an attack by her teammates. Already pushed to the edge, this attack would drive Bayley to call her WrestleMania title shot for Iyo's title, making a Heel–Face Turn and severing ties with the group. A week later Dakota Kai decided to side with Bayley. Sadly, this proved to be a cruel ruse as on March 1st 2024, Dakota revealed she was working with Damage CTRL all along and betrayed her. Bayley would gain her ultimate revenge on her former stablemates by defeating IYO in a showstealer co-main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania XL, making Bayley a 2-time WWE Women's Champion (her first reign was when the title was known as the Raw Women's Title in 2017) in one of the most heartwarming moments of the show and leaving the once golden group down to just the tag titles, seen in most circles as close to worthless due to booking neglect from Vince McMahon during the final years of his administration.
Control the Tropes:
- Amazon Brigade: An all-female Power Stable, a first for WWE.
- Big Bad: Bayley is the group's founder and leader, until her Heel–Face Turn in February 2024 would leave Iyo as the de facto leader of the group.
- Continuity Nod: Since Former Kabuki Warriors Asuka and Kairi joined, the faction marks the reunion of various team combinations made by Asuka, Iyo and Kairi during their time in the independent scene, World Wonder Ring ST★RDOM, NXT and WWE including Triple Tails (Asuka and Iyo), Threedom, Black Lotus Triad and Sky Pirates (Iyo and Kairi), and Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi).
- Dragon-in-Chief: Iyo Sky evolved into this after winning Money in the Bank and then cashing it in to become WWE Women's Champion.
- Easily Forgiven: Kairi Sane immediately joins the group following her WWE return, despite the fact that the reason she was gone for three years was because of Bayley attacking her. This is also true for Asuka, who was Kairi's Tag Team partner during that time and has feuded with Bayley and Sasha Banks since for that very reason. Bayley, on her part, was initially horrified upon seeing Kairi again; the others would invoke this trope in response to put her at ease.
- Foreshadowing: Considering how she won Money in the Bank — By handcuffing Becky and Bayley together while she grabbed the briefcase, one shouldn't be surprised that IYO ended up choosing glory over loyalty.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Nikki Cross and The Judgment Day's Rhea Ripley allied themselves with Damage CTRL for Survivor Series 2022 in a WarGames match against the team of Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Mia Yim, and Becky Lynch.
- Improbably Female Cast: In contrast to most stables, the faction is comprised of all female wrestlers.
- Land, Sea, Sky: The current grouping of Asuka, Iyo and Kairi represents the trinity of the three elements. Iyo is known as the Genius of the Sky which represent the sky, Kairi is known as the Pirate Princess which represent the sea whilst Asuka effectively represents the land.
- Multinational Team: Dakota Kai is Samoan-New Zelander, and Iyo Sky, Asuka and Kairi Sane are all Japanese. The group's former leader and founder Bayley is Mexican-American.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: They waste all their cards trying to humiliate and beat up their former leader Bayley on the road to Wrestlemania XL, but special mention goes to Fake Defector Dakota Kai turning on Bayley much too early, causing the group to lose the element of surprise and leaving them helpless as Bayley swiftly wins the WWE Women's Championship.
- Power Stable: Originally Damage CTRL had Bayley, Iyo, and Dakota as the main group, but in later 2023 a returning Kairi Sane along with Asuka turned the stable into a more powerful group and threat to the entire Smackdown's women roster. Their original dynamic is:
- The Centerpiece: Bayley.
- The Heir Apparent: IYO SKY.
- The Enforcer: Kairi Sane.
- The Muscle: Asuka.
- The Hanger-On (while injured): Dakota Kai.
- In 2024, IYO SKY took the Centerpiece slot following Bayley's Heel–Face Turn after the group unsuccessfully tried to violently expel her. Dakota Kai recovered from her injury and subsequently took the Heir Apparent position, with the Hanger-On slot left unfilled.
- Properly Paranoid: Bayley had her misgivings about allowing Kairi to join the group, given how things ended between them when Kairi left the company back in 2020. She ended up being right, as Kairi and Asuka turned out to be part of IYO's plot to turn against Bayley and take over the stable.
- The Starscream: IYO was planning to be this, having successfully united the Kabuki Warriors into wanting Bayley out of the group. Bayley, however, saw the writing on the wall and bowed out before they could expel her the traditional way. They try to anyway.
- Three Plus Two: Originally a Power Trio of Bayley, IYO SKY and Dakota Kai, until the former Kabuki Warriors Asuka and Kairi Sane join the following year. Coincidentally, the group now contains three Japanese women that have long been associated with each other from their years wrestling in their home country, with Dakota Kai as the remaining member after leader English-speaking Bayley's excommunication and subsequent Heel–Face Turn as a result of the betrayal.
- Took a Level in Badass: Despite an eventful debut, Damage CTRL rarely picked up any significant wins aside from Iyo's MITB cash-in, left almost constantly on the losing side through 2022 and 2023. The addition of Asuka and Kairi Sane in November 2023 would give the faction the numbers and power advantage to finally cement itself as the dominant Power Stable it once merely claimed to be.
- Translator Buddy: Dakota Kai has taken over this role between Bayley and the rest of the members, who have taken to speaking mostly in Japanese with their countrywomen, often locking Bayley out of the loop. (Or so we thought...) It was later revealed that Bayley knew that IYO, Asuka and Kairi were disparaging her behind her back which led to a Heel–Face Turn for her as despite everything she tried to do for the group, she soon realized that it would never be enough. See below...
- Ungrateful Bitch: Bayley helped introduce IYO and Dakota to the main roster, where both of them won numerous titles under her guidance, with her full support the whole way. Then during their WarGames match in 2023, Bayley put in a Determinator effort to keep the match alive for the team. They repaid her for her endless and unconditional support by turning on her in favor of the Kabuki Warriors as soon as Bayley finally accomplished something for herself for a change.
- Ur-Example: They are WWE's first female Power Stable.
- Villain Has a Point: The way Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai both see it, Bayley's entire intention for Damage CTRL was to put herself over on their backs, and the fans are fools for sympathizing with Bayley and supporting her. Except, their words don’t carry that much weight. While she did have her egocentric motivations, Bayley actually cared about the team.
- Iyo has stated that while Damage CTRL started with Bayley's vision, the only reason it became successful was because of the others' hard work, as well as accused Bayley of being lost when she formed the team and only did it so she could latch onto Iyo and Dakota Kai and take the credit for their successes. Iyo wouldn't be a heel, though, if she didn't leave out that Bayley’s support was unconditional as they won championships. Case in point: Bayley didn’t act like the typical jealous heel teammate when Iyo cashed in and won her Women’s Championship, but joyfully celebrated with her and even brought Dakota back on the road that very night to both share in the moment and provide moral support despite her being hurt.
- Dakota claimed that Bayley was jealous of Iyo and threatened by Kairi and Asuka, therefore she had to be cut loose to make the team stronger. This claim amounts to pretending that singular fleeting and entirely forgivable moments were instead constant recurring issues. Bayley was initially upset during the Women's Money in the Bank ladder match when she realized she'd been outsmarted by Iyo, but this anger literally only displayed itself within the confines of the match; by the end of the night she'd already proudly congratulated Iyo on X, and she was clearly all supportive by their very next appearance. She was confused when Kairi returned to assist Iyo, and later when Asuka turned on Bianca to join them; this of course is because Bayley had literally beaten Kairi out of WWE when they were in feuding duos, with Asuka, Kairi's former partner, later being a frequent rival of Damage CTRL. It took very little to convince her to put her suspicions aside to embrace the additions, even fully endorsing the Kabuki Warriors as they regained the Women's Tag Team Titles.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The "Control" in the group's name is spelled in abbreviation and is written in all caps.
