Dakota Kai would take some time to recover from the wounds brought upon her by Shayna Baszler. She would make her comeback to NXT weekly television in March, however on February 17th 2018 she would appear alongside best friend Steffanie Newell in an Ask the WWE Performance Center video to reveal the first thing she did after being offered a WWE contract. Our Captain was in the states at the time so she called her mother back in New Zealand to share the exciting news.

The March 14th 2018 episode of NXT saw Dakota return to in ring action against the self-proclaimed "First Lady of NXT" Lacey Evans. The match was made after Evans took to her typical classless insults, in fact calling Kai a classless sad excuse of a woman. The kinesio tape over Kai's shoulder gave the much less experienced Evans an overconfidence. She would evade a running PK in the opening seconds, proceeding to aggressively work over Kai's shoulder.

Kai fed off the crowd and her experience to escape a submission and school roll-up Evans for a quick win. But Dakota's celebration was halted by the arrival of Shayna Baszler. The Queen of Spades stalked to the ring, incensed on picking up where she left off in January. NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon would not stand for that tormenting, again coming to Kai's aid. Shayna and Ember brawled until Baszler cut Moon off as she climbed to the top rope to hit The Eclipse.

Shayna had Ember draped over the top rope, in prone position for her to try and break her arm. But that would not happen. Dakota returned the favor coming to Ember's rescue, Kaio-Kicking Shayna's arm out of her arm. Moon was now able to hit The Eclipse on Baszler to send a dominant message a head of their TakeOver: New Orleans NXT Women's Championship Match on April 7th 2018 during WrestleMania Weekend.

Dakota was scheduled to have a match on the March 28th 2018 episode of NXT. That match would not happen as a brawl between NXT Champion Andrade and Aleister Black spilled out into the NXT Arena while Kai awaited her opponent. The men were scheduled for a match at TakeOver: New Orleans. Dakota wasn't but would have a couple huge opportunities herself come WrestleMania Weekend.

Additional Information | Dakota Kai defeated Lacey Evans (0:53) on the March 14, 2018 episode of WWE NXT at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia.