Buddy Matthews is coming to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
According to live reports from Saturday’s New Japan Showdown taping in Philadelphia, Buddy Matthews (fka Buddy Murphy in WWE) will be appearing at the promotion’s upcoming “Battle In The Valley” event, which is scheduled to take place in San Jose, California, on November 13. Matthews’ arrival was confirmed by a promotional video played for the live crowd; no other details about his appearance have been announced at this time.
Will Ospreay, Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White and Tom Lawlor are also advertised for Battle In The Valley; tickets are on sale now.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling has also uploaded the promo video to social media and can be seen below:
'They say as one door closes, another opens… Maybe it was staring at me the entire time.'
Buddy Matthews is coming. #njpw #njBitV @SNM_Buddy pic.twitter.com/Wqzk62CTFX
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) October 17, 2021
Matthews was released by WWE in June, and officially became a free agent on August 31. Since then, he’s worked two matches (for Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling and Battleground Championship Wrestling) and has reported garnered major interest from IMPACT Wrestling.
The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and reflected on his time in WWE, including how it felt like his tenure was “doomed” once his involvement in the Seth Rollins and Mysterios feud became problematic.
“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. And I 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.”
Read More: Buddy Murphy Says Losing His First Name In WWE Was His Idea
