Kayla Braxton discussed her departure from WWE on the most recent episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
Braxton, real name Kayla Becker, announced earlier this summer that she would be leaving WWE after being with the company since 2016. She started with the company, moved on to NXT as a ring announcer, and then worked as a backstage interviewer on the main roster in May 2017 while still a ring announcer for NXT. She joined the main roster full-time in 2019.
Braxton also co-hosted The Bump and hosted Talking Smack.
Here are the highlights:
On how she feels following her WWE departure:
“I feel really good, you know. I think anytime you know you’re somewhere for so long, and it becomes such a big part of your life, it is, you know, I think it was difficult for me to know how I was going to feel when I stepped away. And I think I’ve had a little bit of FOMO, you know, when I see the shows on or see my friends posting about their matches and stuff backstage, but I feel really good like I think I made the right decision. It was definitely time for me to go. There was nothing negative about my reason for leaving. It was just done. Everything I can do there. I’ve hit the ceiling at this time. At that point, I was just kind of wasting my time, and I think everybody else’s time. Someone else could be moving into my spot, and then I could be moving on to the next part of my life. So I’m really, really at peace with it.”
On leaving WWE:
“It’s something I’d been kind of contemplating for a while. I think once I stepped down from The Bump, I moved to Los Angeles. It was very clear. It was kind of trying to define what my next phase of life was going to be, career-wise. And I think the company kind of acknowledged that as well, and they were very supportive, like when I moved out to LA they put a studio in my apartment. They wanted me to continue doing The Bump until I was like, ‘Okay, I think it’s time that Megan Morant takes over this role full time, and you have your studio crew in Stanford,’ and then I feel like, you know, on SmackDown, it’s hard. It’s a two-hour show, so there’s not a lot of room for backstage interviews on SmackDown, you know, you gotta get the stories in there. So I wasn’t doing much backstage at SmackDown, and then I wasn’t really doing the kickoff show panels anymore. And so I was just, kind of, seeing the writing on the wall a little bit. And just thought, I feel good at where my life is outside of WWE. So I just thought it was, and while everybody was, you know, getting long, everything was amicable. The company was very supportive of me stepping down to ‘the door is always open.’ It was very, very nice to hear. Yeah, it was just everything. Was just a perfect timing to do that.”
On dabbling into acting:
“And I’ve been dabbling and acting a little bit, and that was something that I’ve talked to my agents about. The thing with WWE that people don’t realize is I’m acting backstage. I’m not pretending. I’m playing a character—a broadcasting character. However, with The Bump, that was broadcasting work. I did my research asking actual interview questions. So, yeah, the little best of both worlds, I think, really prepares people like us for potential, like Hollywood stuff.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
