Jackie Redmond Breaks Down Emotional Moment With Cody Rhodes After John Cena’s Final Maatch

Jackie Redmond recently went over her emotional moment with Cody Rhodes following John Cena’s final match. Redmond appeared on the Raw Recap show this week to discuss John Cena retiring from his in-ring career at last weekend’s WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. Redmond was part of the WWE broadcast team at the event.

Redmond also spoke about her impromptu conversation with WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes, which took place on the post-show after Cena’s final appearance. Below are some highlights:

Jackie Redmond on Her Raw and Emotional Conversation With Cody Rhodes

“All of the credit in the world to Cody Rhodes for not just like agreeing to do the interview on the spot — and I promise you, WWE universe, like I did approach him — like e had no heads up that was gonna happen because we didn’t know that Cody Rhodes would stay by the ring while everyone else to have a moment for himself. And when we saw that, it was like, we have to try and at least talk to him and figure out his feelings, why he needs to be there, why he wants this moment for himself, just with himself and John Cena’s shoes in the ring. So all the credit to Cody for being open to that, but also for being so real about his emotions. He was crying, he had tears, and for me, because I’ve done this wrong in the past in my career, it was one of those moments where once I asked the question, I was just going to let Cody go as long as he wanted to go. ‘Say everything that you want to say. I’m not going to ask a follow-up question until it’s very clear that you sort of emptied the emotional tank,’ and I think it’s so awesome that Cody was able to be that open and vulnerable and emotional, especially as a man, a strong, powerful man in WWE to be able to cry on TV and say how emotional it is.

“And it was poetic, a lot of the stuff that he said too, so I really admire him for having the decency to do that, and yeah, it turned into a really great moment that I think a lot of wrestling fans relate to because it is hard to see John Cena go. It doesn’t feel right to close that chapter, and it’s weird to come out on Monday — the only person happy to be about not seeing John Cena, of course, is Gunther. He could not care less that John Cena is done. He made that very clear, but I think for wrestling fans, it’s a very bittersweet thing, where you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. This was so great. Your run was so good. You gave us so much, but now it’s over, and how do we wrestle with that?’ How do we accept it? And do we move on from it? Will there ever be another John Cena? Are we ever going to feel like this again? Like, I don’t know!”

On How Cody Understands How Special the Moment Was

“And I think Cody understands it on another level as well because it wasn’t that long ago that we, as a collective fanbase, were really wanting to see Cody finish the story. Of course, his story is still going, but not everyone gets to finish their story. Not everyone gets to leave the way that they want to leave. Not everyone gets to achieve everything, of course, in the ring, but also kind of go out the way they want to go out. Go around and say, ‘This is my retirement tour. If you want to see me one last time, I’m going to give you 25 dates to try and be able to do that.’ Like — John Cena’s the only person who’s ever done that, not everyone gets to, and Cody on another level, because he left this place, because he had to go and do it a different way, maybe understands just how special that is and how rare it is for someone to be able to do that. And so he gets more emotional about it.”

At WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, John Cena lost to Gunther via submission in the main event. After the match, both Cody Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk entered the ring, showing their respect to Cena and placing their belts on him. Cena then carried their belts across the ring, celebrating with the fans one final time.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Raw Recap, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.