During a recent episode of WWE SmackDown, Cody Rhodes gave fans in New York City’s Madison Square Garden a surprise speech. Before Rhodes delivered his comments, two off-air matches took place; Awesome Truth was victorious over Pretty Deadly and Jey Uso defeated Finn Balor in a Street Fight.
After the Street Fight, Rhodes made an unexpected announcement that a member of the WWE family was moving on. He honored Kayla Braxton and bid her well for her future endeavors. Braxton expressed her gratitude to the WWE for everything she had learned from the company over the last eight years.
As Braxton left the ring, Rhodes referred back to the first chapter of this story – his father Dusty’s WWWF Championship win against Superstar Billy Graham at MSG many years ago. He celebrated his father by raising the WWWF belt that Dusty had won at the corner of the ring.
Apart from speaking, Rhodes also spent approximately half an hour to three-quarters of an hour after the event engaged in photo-taking with fans. Highlights from this post-event segment are available to view online.
Braxton took to social media after WWE SmackDown, expressing her heartfelt thanks to her WWE family. She tweeted, “I love my WWE family. Thank you guys so much. I’m overwhelmed. I will miss you all but we will see each other again.”
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