Some notes from Buddy Murphy's interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Wrestling
[Here's the link to the interview]()
# SmackDown Live in 2019
* After seeing Buddy next to AJ Styles, Vince made the call to never mention that he was a cruiserweight again because he looked too big
* In Mid-2019, there was a SmackDown show in Miami. That was originally where he was meant to make his in ring debut in a triple threat match with Mustafa Ali and Andrade. The match was canceled last minute.
* During the wild-card rule era of SmackDown in 2019, WWE would send a person out during a commercial break [to cut a promo to those in the arena]() so that the people in the ring wouldn’t have to wrestle. This was when Vince didn’t want wrestling during the commercial breaks. There was something on the script of one of these promos that he was adamant about not saying, so creative told him to think of something better to say. The hallway where he was thinking happened to be where they were shooting [the Roman Reigns attack]().
* Roman Reigns vs. Buddy Murphy was originally supposed to happen a week earlier, but Roman shot it down after saying that they were rushing the story.
* Buddy produced the majority of [his match with Roman](), which is why it was more of a “Buddy Murphy style” match.
## The Mysterio Saga and his release
* While Murphy was with Seth Rollins, he purposefully didn’t speak much and wanted to be robotic because the person that he stood by was supposed to do the majority of the talking. This made it so that during the few times he actually did speak, people listened.
* Before the 2020 WWE Draft, WWE told him that the Mysterio Storyline segments were the highest rated on RAW, so they wanted to move the whole storyline to SmackDown.
* The endgame for the Mysterio storyline originally was for Murphy to rejoin Seth Rollins. There were no plans for his relationship with Aalyah Mysterio and was simply created to add “friction” to his discipleship with Seth Rollins. That plan was changed after [their first match together on the October 23, 2020 SmackDown](), although both Seth and Murphy were both against this idea.
* The reasoning behind the Mysterios cheating in [Murphy’s first match with King Corbin]() was because they had been screwed with for months, and the mentally going forward was that “The Mysterios were gonna screw with you before you screw with them.” It was supposed to have some tie in to Eddie Guerrero.
* He felt it was dumb that he needed help to defeat King Corbin only 1 week after defeating Seth Rollins clean. He described it as “when he turned babyface he lost all of his abilities to wrestle.”
* The Mysterio storyline ended after:
* The Mysterios tested positive for COVID
* Murphy came in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID
* Cutler and Blake were sent home after Cutler tested positive for COVID
* There was no communication between The Mysterios and creative, and he discovered from the dirt sheets that the angle had been dropped. One he finally tracked down Bruce Prichard this turned out to be true.
* His [interaction with Seth Rollins]() and [match with Cesaro]() were random, and by that time all of the plans to reunite Seth and Murphy were shot down.
* After the Mysterios vs. Corbin feud ended, he felt like WWE was “rubbing his nose in it” by making him attend SmackDown every week, even though they knew creative had nothing for him. He compared this to Aleister Black, who creative also had nothing for but did not have to attend weekly shows for the 7 months that he was inactive. This is partially what made him turn away from the product.
* He didn’t answer the original release call
* After his release he felt like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders
## 205 Live
* Whenever he had a [weigh-in segment on 205 live](), he would not eat, workout, and hit a sauna so he looked dry for the weigh-ins.
* The original plan for WrestleMania 35 was him vs. Cedric Alexander (in their 4th match) for the Cruiserweight championship. The only reasoning behind this was that it would be a good match.
* He chose to lose his title to Tony Nese at WrestleMania 35 instead
* Sometime after WrestleMania 35, some of the writers of 205 live were released too.
* With Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese now released, he considers 205 live pretty much dead.
## Other Notes
* It was his idea to remove the “Buddy” from his name
* The unexplained story behind this was that he was so brainwashed by Seth Rollins that he was willing to give up his given name just to symbolize a “rebirth”
* Paul Heyman was always good to him, and Buddy considered him a very approachable guy
* Without a script, he considers himself a decent promo.
* Other than a “hello” once in a while, Buddy never spoke to Kevin Dunn
* He considers himself a detail-oriented person
* He only spoke to Vince McMahon a few times
* He did promo work with Edge
* He mentioned to management multiple times that he was unhappy and that he wanted to do more
* He was around 203 pounds during his last WWE match ([The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal]()), but he’s 213 pounds currently
* He considers WWE’s lighting terrible
* He was upset after being told him and Aleister Black were going to have a [third match]() because he wanted to avoid 50/50 booking
* It was his idea to sit cross-legged during Aleister Black’s entrance at [TLC 2019]()
* He implied that he became depressed after being taken off of tv because he would “extreme diet” from Monday to Friday just in case he would make it to TV, then when he wasn’t booked he would eat junk foods all weekend. This cycle went on until his release
* He considers the PC Era to be the hardest he’s ever worked, and said that WWE was “less organized” even though they had more time
* He has done all of his paperwork and is now just waiting for a green card
* Although he was released because of budget cuts, WWE was willing to extend his non-compete clause to 90 days after assuming it only 30. This turned out to be false as ~~Aleister~~ Malakai Black was the one who’s non-complete was 30 days
[Here's the link to the interview]()
# SmackDown Live in 2019
* After seeing Buddy next to AJ Styles, Vince made the call to never mention that he was a cruiserweight again because he looked too big
* In Mid-2019, there was a SmackDown show in Miami. That was originally where he was meant to make his in ring debut in a triple threat match with Mustafa Ali and Andrade. The match was canceled last minute.
* During the wild-card rule era of SmackDown in 2019, WWE would send a person out during a commercial break [to cut a promo to those in the arena]() so that the people in the ring wouldn’t have to wrestle. This was when Vince didn’t want wrestling during the commercial breaks. There was something on the script of one of these promos that he was adamant about not saying, so creative told him to think of something better to say. The hallway where he was thinking happened to be where they were shooting [the Roman Reigns attack]().
* Roman Reigns vs. Buddy Murphy was originally supposed to happen a week earlier, but Roman shot it down after saying that they were rushing the story.
* Buddy produced the majority of [his match with Roman](), which is why it was more of a “Buddy Murphy style” match.
## The Mysterio Saga and his release
* While Murphy was with Seth Rollins, he purposefully didn’t speak much and wanted to be robotic because the person that he stood by was supposed to do the majority of the talking. This made it so that during the few times he actually did speak, people listened.
* Before the 2020 WWE Draft, WWE told him that the Mysterio Storyline segments were the highest rated on RAW, so they wanted to move the whole storyline to SmackDown.
* The endgame for the Mysterio storyline originally was for Murphy to rejoin Seth Rollins. There were no plans for his relationship with Aalyah Mysterio and was simply created to add “friction” to his discipleship with Seth Rollins. That plan was changed after [their first match together on the October 23, 2020 SmackDown](), although both Seth and Murphy were both against this idea.
* The reasoning behind the Mysterios cheating in [Murphy’s first match with King Corbin]() was because they had been screwed with for months, and the mentally going forward was that “The Mysterios were gonna screw with you before you screw with them.” It was supposed to have some tie in to Eddie Guerrero.
* He felt it was dumb that he needed help to defeat King Corbin only 1 week after defeating Seth Rollins clean. He described it as “when he turned babyface he lost all of his abilities to wrestle.”
* The Mysterio storyline ended after:
* The Mysterios tested positive for COVID
* Murphy came in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID
* Cutler and Blake were sent home after Cutler tested positive for COVID
* There was no communication between The Mysterios and creative, and he discovered from the dirt sheets that the angle had been dropped. One he finally tracked down Bruce Prichard this turned out to be true.
* His [interaction with Seth Rollins]() and [match with Cesaro]() were random, and by that time all of the plans to reunite Seth and Murphy were shot down.
* After the Mysterios vs. Corbin feud ended, he felt like WWE was “rubbing his nose in it” by making him attend SmackDown every week, even though they knew creative had nothing for him. He compared this to Aleister Black, who creative also had nothing for but did not have to attend weekly shows for the 7 months that he was inactive. This is partially what made him turn away from the product.
* He didn’t answer the original release call
* After his release he felt like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders
## 205 Live
* Whenever he had a [weigh-in segment on 205 live](), he would not eat, workout, and hit a sauna so he looked dry for the weigh-ins.
* The original plan for WrestleMania 35 was him vs. Cedric Alexander (in their 4th match) for the Cruiserweight championship. The only reasoning behind this was that it would be a good match.
* He chose to lose his title to Tony Nese at WrestleMania 35 instead
* Sometime after WrestleMania 35, some of the writers of 205 live were released too.
* With Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese now released, he considers 205 live pretty much dead.
## Other Notes
* It was his idea to remove the “Buddy” from his name
* The unexplained story behind this was that he was so brainwashed by Seth Rollins that he was willing to give up his given name just to symbolize a “rebirth”
* Paul Heyman was always good to him, and Buddy considered him a very approachable guy
* Without a script, he considers himself a decent promo.
* Other than a “hello” once in a while, Buddy never spoke to Kevin Dunn
* He considers himself a detail-oriented person
* He only spoke to Vince McMahon a few times
* He did promo work with Edge
* He mentioned to management multiple times that he was unhappy and that he wanted to do more
* He was around 203 pounds during his last WWE match ([The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal]()), but he’s 213 pounds currently
* He considers WWE’s lighting terrible
* He was upset after being told him and Aleister Black were going to have a [third match]() because he wanted to avoid 50/50 booking
* It was his idea to sit cross-legged during Aleister Black’s entrance at [TLC 2019]()
* He implied that he became depressed after being taken off of tv because he would “extreme diet” from Monday to Friday just in case he would make it to TV, then when he wasn’t booked he would eat junk foods all weekend. This cycle went on until his release
* He considers the PC Era to be the hardest he’s ever worked, and said that WWE was “less organized” even though they had more time
* He has done all of his paperwork and is now just waiting for a green card
* Although he was released because of budget cuts, WWE was willing to extend his non-compete clause to 90 days after assuming it only 30. This turned out to be false as ~~Aleister~~ Malakai Black was the one who’s non-complete was 30 days
