Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion [Buddy] Murphy was seemingly positioned to become a breakout star on SmackDown late last year, when he was in a prominent storyline with Seth Rollins and the Mysterio family. Instead, just a few months later, Murphy was taken off TV ahead of his release in June.
In a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Murphy reflected on where it all went wrong. He pointed to the problematic booking of his association with the Mysterios as a major factor of his downfall.
“I felt like I was doomed as soon as I beat Seth, and I got put with the Mysterios,” said Murphy. “That was my big coming out as a babyface, and I need four members of a family to help me beat King Corbin. And we cheat, and then I cheat and that was my big opening to [being] a babyface. AndI love working with Rey, love working with Dom, Aalyah was amazing, but the original idea wasn’t for me to become babyface and go with the Mysterios. The original idea was for me to stay with Seth, which I loved because I didn’t want to be locked down with a person that isn’t contracted to a company.”
Murphy argued that he believed he was hamstrung by his association with Aalyah because she wasn’t a contracted member of the WWE roster.
“I knew that that was gonna be a problem, that I’m associated with someone that’s not signed to the company and that has her own ambitions in life,” said Murphy. “She’s doing her thing, like the wrestling thing, she kinda came in for the angle and maybe they sucked her in for a little bit. But I was associated with that now. So if she’s not on, I’m not on.”
On top of these issues from a creative standpoint, Murphy described the obstacles he and the Mysterios faced near the end of 2020, as they all had to quarantine at different points due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, the situation surrounding Steve Cutler made this uncertain time even more complicated, as a lack of communication made it unclear what the future held for the storyline.
“…There was big issue towards the end of the year, I think someone close to the Mysterios tested positive, so they got quarantined and then they were gone for two weeks,” said Murphy. “And then I had to quarantine because I was around someone that tested positive. So then I quarantined, and I came back and then [Wesley] Blake and [Steve] Cutler had been sent home and I’m not getting any answers.
“And then dirt sheets are saying that the angle’s been dropped, but I can’t get an answer, Rey can’t get an answer,” said Murphy. “We had no answers, and Rey was saying that he’s got Aalyah messaging him like, ‘Hey dad, am I needed?’ You know what I mean? There was no communication.”
Murphy then described how he desperately tried to reach Executive Director Bruce Prichard, and when he finally did, Prichard simply told him the storyline had been dropped. When told that the plan was to give Murphy something separate from the Mysterios, the man once known as the “Best Kept Secret” pitched a reunion with Rollins, but the creative team never picked up this idea. Still, Murphy noted how he was brought back for two brief matches and wrongfully led to believe that he was getting paired up with Rollins again.
“I came back for two three-minute matches and originally, when I was told about those matches, I was like, ‘Is this to bring me and Seth back together?'” said Murphy. “He goes, ‘I don’t know for sure but it looks that way. I’m like okay. They were just telling me that to keep me happy. I did those two matches, and then that was it.”
The full interview is available here:
RELATED: ROH Death Before Dishonor PPV Set For 9/12, Event Will Be Held In Lakeland, Florida
