Cody Rhodes paid homage to his late father, Dusty Rhodes, after WWE SmackDown went off the air on June 28 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
“I mentioned it earlier when we came out here. I had a different plan in mind for my return to The Garden,” Cody said to the crowd in an appearance in the ring after the 6/28 WWE on FOX program went off the air. “Because it is not just my return to The Garden. For those of you who know this story, this is where it all began. In the late ‘70s, my father, ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes traveled to New York City to wrestle ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham. He was a country boy from Austin, Texas, and for some reason, you guys just loved him. Anyways, in this fabled match, Dusty Rhodes defeated ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham. He grabbed what would become this WWE Championship. He climbed that buckle over there, and he held it up.”
He continued, “But moments later, they took it away from him. It’s okay, this story has a happy ending. I was eight years old, I saw the picture of this title. I knew nothing about the ins and outs of pro wrestling and sports entertainment. All I knew was I wanted to win that title for him. I had always planned on saying the silliest thing to him, but I just wanted to tell him that nobody can take it away from you now. So like I said, if you’ll indulge me, I am gonna climb that buckle because I wanna hold up the WWE Championship, but if I could, my cousin [WWE timekeeper] Berkley , you got something in your hands over there? I will trade you.”
Cody then gave WWE timekeeper Berkley Ottman his WWE Universal title in exchange for the classic WWF Title, which he posed with as fans chanted “Dusty! Dusty!”
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
