Kayla Braxton looks back on her departure from WWE.
After nearly eight years as a host, ring announcer, and interviewer with the company, Kayla Braxton officially said goodbye to WWE in June 2024. According to Braxton herself, though, she initially wanted to leave much earlier,
“I was already telling my management I wanted to quit the company, and that was three years in,” Braxton told Scott Stanford and Nic Nemeth of Busted Open’s Off The Ropes. “I was like, ‘I think I’m done, I’m done here. I’ve done everything,’ blah, blah, blah. Then they’re like, ‘We got this morning show. We want you to be the host of it.’ I’m like, okay, I’m going to stick around. And that went on for four years. That’s kind of what I decided to step out, step away. The Bump was done. I wasn’t hosting kick-off shows anymore. They brought in Jackie Redmond, who’s freaking phenomenal, and she deserves every part of that position that she has.
Kayla Braxton says she saw the writing on the wall at WWE
“Everything was switching over in WWE, obviously, so I could kind of see the writing on the wall,” she continued. “I knew I wasn’t going to be happy going back into that, showing up, grueling travel to maybe get one pre-written interview. My creativity was stifled. I wasn’t allowed to do any outside projects. I was like, as a woman, I’m getting a little older, I’m not going to wake up in five more years and still be stuck doing this when I have all these other things that I want to be doing. So that ultimately was a reason to walk away.”
Across her WWE run, Braxton notably ring announced for the WWE NXT brand, hosted pre and post-shows, and served as a backstage interviewer. In 2019, Braxton also came aboard The Bump, WWE’s first weekly morning show.
Since exiting WWE, Braxton has completed a number of other projects, such as her first movie, titled Strangehold. Appearing alongside Braxton in the comedy thriller will be Ashley Benson, Justin Long, and Ron Perlman.
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