Cody Rhodes Comments On Emotional Madison Square Garden Moment With Classic WWE Title

This past Friday after "WWE SmackDown" went off the air, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes honored his father Dusty Rhodes at Madison Square Garden by retelling the story of "The American Dream" defeating Superstar Billy Graham for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship in 1977, which was taken away from him after winning the match by countout. Rhodes continued by sharing how proud he was to win the title for his father, and then revealed the original championship from 1977, raising it in the same corner that Dusty did when he was victorious over Graham that night. 

Speaking on "The Pivot Podcast," Rhodes went into detail about the moment he had with the New York crowd while also explaining how honoring his father at MSG has been a dream of his since he was a child. "Truthfully at eight years old that was my goal, my goal was to do what I did last night and you know I wish he had been alive for it ... I often get emotional on the microphone, there's a good chunk of wrestling fans, that is not what they are tuning in for. They are not into this dude up there crying all the time, they are not but that was one of those ones and I was happy that we did it for the MSG crowd ... he loved the Garden and the Garden was really good to Dusty and they didn't have to be." 

"The American Nightmare" also explained how grateful he was to "live the picture" of his dad holding the title that was taken away from him following "SmackDown," and ultimately credits that moment for his wanting to become a professional wrestler. 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Pivot Podcast" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.