Kayla Braxton Says She Found Out About The Rock’s WWE Return 30 Minutes Before It Happened

Kayla Braxton says she didn’t know about The Rock’s return to WWE until the last minute.

‘The Great One’ shocked fans around the world when he made a surprise appearance on the September 15 episode of WWE SmackDown. The Rock made use of his appearance, as he attacked Austin Theory and shook hands with an old rival in John Cena.

To no surprise, it seems that the news of Rock’s appearance made its way around backstage just moments before SmackDown went on the air.

While speaking to Chris Van Vliet for a new interview, Kayla Braxton said she found out about Rock’s appearance only thirty minutes before it happened.

“[I found out] I think 30 minutes prior maybe, because he was with Pat McAfee that day on College GameDay. I don’t even think this was planned. Pat McAfee has this way of making everybody want to be his best friend. In fact, he got The Rock to come to SmackDown. I mean, that’s a very Pat McAfee thing, but I think it was just like that, you know, Rock was in town, so why not swing by Smackdown? But it was like right then, it was a surprise for all of us.”

Braxton then recalled having a short conversation with Rock at an episode of SmackDown in 2019 before noting that he’s a genuinely good human being.

“Like I freaked and that was the second time I’ve ever met him. The first time was when we premiered on Fox for the first time, however many years ago and I saw him and I was like, I have to say hi to him. And I kept like, talking myself up. It’s now or never Kayla got to do it. And I saw him. And he was like, done socialising. And he was walking back to like his bus and I was like, now’s your time. I went up to him was and I said, Mr. The Rock. I was like, Oh, my God I called him Mr. The Rock. But he turned around, and we had like, a five-minute conversation. And he’s so good about making you feel like you’re the only person in the room. And he looked me in the eye and just asked questions about me. And that was incredible. He’s such a genuinely good human being. And so this time, he remembered me. I was trying to get an interview with him. But he’s a busy man. He promised me next time he sees me, I’ll get my interview with him. The third time’s a charm. But it was so cool. And like you said with Cena there. The fact that fans bought their tickets without knowing that was going to happen was such an incredible, incredible [experience]. Imagine fans who have been fans forever. And that may have been their very first show. And they bought their ticket. I think when they bought tickets, we didn’t even know Cena was going to be there at the time when the tickets went on sale. So people bought their tickets, then they find out Cena is gonna be there, then Pat McAfee’s there and then The Rock comes out, like holy cow.”

Back in 2022, Braxton said that Sami Zayn is the most entertaining character on WWE television. Fans can learn more by clicking here.

Fans can see the current lineup for the December 22 episode of WWE SmackDown by clicking here.

Special thanks to Chris Van Vliet for the quote(s).