Buddy Murphy (Matt Adams) is a professional wrestler known best for his time in WWE and NXT. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orlando, FL to talk about what his plans are since being released from WWE, his thoughts on signing with AEW, growing up in Australia, what he learned from being tag team partners with Seth Rollins, the original plans for why he started going by just “Murphy”, his storyline and kiss with Aalyah Mysterio, why he is grateful for Alexa Bliss, his opinion of Tommy End (Malakai Black) in AEW and much more!
On his new physique:
“It was a strategically taken picture. I look a lot bigger than what I actually weigh. I don’t hold much water, so if you take the water weight out I’m maybe a little smaller. My last match in WWE, I think it was around WrestleMania Battle Royal, I was about 200lbs. But visually I look a lot bigger, it’s just a number on the scale to me. Right now I am about 213-215. But I definitely gained size, my strength is really good at the moment. I had a bad mentality when it came to food, especially towards the end of my run in WWE. I would diet like crazy Monday to Friday, in hopes that maybe Friday is the day. I always wanted to be ready. I didn’t want to be that guy where when his ticket is called, he is not ready. Also I have been training at a wrestling school for the last 6 months in case you need a 20 minute match that I can go. I’ve also spent more time in the gym so when I take my shirt off I look good. Every time is like a job interview, you just don’t know. But then you get to Friday, you don’t see your name on the sheet and you binge eat on the weekend. Then Monday comes and it starts again. So I’m eating more now, nothing has changed except for being ultra lean heading into a TV taping. I’m not binging and on a bad cycle.”
On his initial weight loss:
“So I was originally about 230lbs. I hated wrestling in NXT. Once the tag team broke up I was off TV for a long time. We were promised stuff like me and Blake were going to get this thing, that never happened. When we finally got our match, it was 30 seconds, Samoa Joe wiped us out and we were never seen on TV again. So then I’m doing live events and I’m sometimes booked but not booked. Or I am wrestling guys that were 7 foot but didn’t really know what they were doing. I just wasn’t enjoying wrestling, and my fiancée at the time was always on the road. I’m here working a job that I wasn’t enjoying and looking after the animals. I needed something for myself so I started looking at the gym. I started changing my body and learning about nutrition. From there I kind of lost a little bit of weight. I wasn’t the full 230, I was about 218.”
On how he got to 205 Live:
“I wanted to go to the cruiserweight division because I thought it was my style. They weren’t doing anything with my in NXT, I’m doing all the right things every day but I’m not getting any proof that I am doing any good because I’m not doing anything. That’s where the best kept secret came from, you’re telling me how good I am but no on knows. They only know the enhancement guy who was in the tag team. The people in NXT knew what I was capable of, but the rest of the world didn’t. I’m not saying I am the best in the World, because we have one of them, but I have the potential. I wanted to go to the cruiserweight division for such a long time. I was yelled at, I was kicked out of meetings for mentioning it. I end up reaching out to Adam Pearce secretly via Twitter. I said ‘Hey man I see you are doing this tournament. I don’t know if all the spots are finished, but I would love to throw my name in the hat. Weight is not an issue.’ I was doing a live event from NXT somewhere and I got a call from Ryan Kats. He said ‘Hey, what’s your availability on Saturday?’ I said ‘What are you talking about?’ He said ‘Didn’t you know? You’re debuting on Tuesday, we need a creative vignette.’ I didn’t even know. I went in there and filmed it, and I did have to weigh in. I had to go in there and prove that I was under 205lbs. I just went to the sauna, didn’t eat and weighed in.”
On moving to the main roster:
“My whole time in the cruiserweight, loved it. I can’t be more appreciative of my time in 205 Live. It was fun, I was creative, I was having great matches. We felt like we had a little bit of pull and we could suggest stuff and it would be considered. It was an awesome group of guys, we all travelled together. I win the title, do some great stuff, go to WrestleMania, lose it, pass it to Tony Nese. And then I get drafted to SmackDown. I’m like this is it! But then I don’t do anything for 4 to 5 months. The I just so happen to accidently be in the background of a Roman shot, which gave me a spotlight and had the internet talking. When the internet talks they [WWE] can shy away from it. But luckily in my case, they brought attention to it. Then I had this killer match with Roman and the week after I had this killer match with Bryan. Then I was in the King of the Ring against Ali. 3 weeks in a row I have killer matches, but then I’m just dropped. I didn’t understand it. I was in talks with [Paul] Heyman, and he was going to take over RAW. I assumed that he had spoken up and said he wanted me, and the people of SmackDown didn’t want to use me. They didn’t want to highlight someone who is going to Mondays. They say that if Paul wants to advocate for you, it can work for you or against you. Maybe it worked against me, but I felt like I was delivering. Did I lose out or did you?”
On going from Buddy Murphy to just Murphy:
“That was my idea. But the whole story behind it was never told. So I was talking to Michael Hayes and he goes ‘Buddy!’ I’m like ‘Hey Michael what’s up?’ He goes ‘Buddy, it’s too friendly.’ So I’m like maybe I should go back to Murphy. In NXT it was Blake and Murphy, I don’t need Buddy. Maybe because I am this disciple character, and Buddy doesn’t fit. I said ‘Well how about I sacrifice my given name for the greater good?’ Now I am becoming a reborn to Seth. I’m giving away my birth name and I will be known like a number for the greater cause. Next week, I am just Murphy, never explained. The whole idea was I am doing this for Seth and when I leave Seth, I go back to Buddy Murphy. I didn’t like that. They could have explained it a lot. The fact that we are talking about it now, they are questioned that should not have to be answered a year and a half later.”
On the angle with kissing Aalyah Mysterio:
“I wasn’t comfortable kissing Aalyah. I did that because it was my job and it was going to create more drama in the story. Originally, there was no kiss scripted. They [the producers] went and they talked to Vince about something. They come back and they pitch it to me but they are kind of like weird. Then they say ‘…and then you kiss her.’ I start laughing and go ‘f*ck off.’ But then they are like ‘No we are serious.’ I look at the other producer and he was like [nods head]. I’m like ‘No way! How did you come back with this?’ My whole thing was I had to play it very carefully. I said to them ‘I’m not going to express feelings to her. I can’t pursue her, she has to pursue me.’ This was because of the age difference. You don’t make it any easier when you use my birthday as ‘the message.’ So now you have given them [fans] the information of how old is he? How old is she? What? I think them saying ‘Happy birthday’ basically just outed that. I wasn’t comfortable with it, but they didn’t help with the situation. I’m like ‘What does she [Aalyah] think about it’ They go ‘She’s cool with it.’ I’m like ‘What!’ They went to her first, I thought she was going to shoot it down. So then I go ‘What about Rey?’ they say ‘They’re OK with it?’ I’m like well if they are OK with it, I can’t be the one that goes whatever. I was very blunt with them, I can’t pursue her, if I do, I’m a creep. I’m a ‘pedo’ as people say on the internet. If she goes for me, she’s an empowered woman that knows what she wants. I think they sold her on a Hollywood style kiss. I’m not in Hollywood, what’s a Hollywood style kiss? They explain the camera shots. We are live on TV you can’t do these behind the head camera shots. There’s 8 cameras on you, who knows which one they are going to shoot you on. If there’s a gap, the whole thing is done. Seth was nervous about it, because this whole storyline rides on this one kiss. I’m uncomfortable, and she’s new. We are out there and about to cut the promo and I said to her this needs to look good. If you have any second minds, I am giving you the green light. Do whatever you want, it’s 100% you. Do what you need to do, this needs to look good. It looked great, the aftermath wasn’t great for me. But we are both adults, we are both acting, we gave each other a high 5 after it and that was it.”
On troubles for international stars:
“Imagine you had to pack your life up and you had 10 pairs of shoes. You then had to narrow it down to one pair of shoes to bring to your next life. For no reason, for a budget cut. It’s disheartening when you break it down like that. A budget cut could cost me my life, I have dogs, I own a house. I know The IIconics have been very open about it. I think a system needs to come out. They do these programs with substance abuse, there needs to be something with internationals after it happens. You give me money and tools to build a life, and on a budget cut it gets torn up. It’s disheartening. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, at the end of August we will see what is next.”
On the non compete clause and mass releases:
“The 90 days is to kill all buzz and all hype. It’s so you don’t have any momentum when you go somewhere else. I’m not going to blow my load in the first week. I have to expand it over the 3 months. That’s why I drop the progress photo. Then I will drop something else. I feel like they hoard a lot of talent, and now they are saturating the talent. It is a business move I believe they are making. If you send out 3 guys, they can do what they want. If you send out 40 guys, the work gets cut. But wrestling can boom again. Now the pandemic is ending, more talent can go to the indies, and the fans can see it all.”
On the best advice he got in WWE:
“It’s tough, because I used everything, stripped it down and learned. When I would finish a match, I didn’t care about what I did good. What was sh*t? I can fix the bad things and then become better. Seth was massive with this stuff. I would go what about ‘buh buh buh?’ And he would hit back with ‘That sounds good, but what about buh buh buh?’ I would break that down and go why did my mind go A but his go B? Why are we on 2 different wavelengths. I don’t know if I annoyed Seth by asking all these questions. But literally and figuratively I was his disciple. Working with Roman was great because he worked on selling. With the cruiserweights it was so fast, Roman was like slow it down.”
On what he is grateful for:
“For WWE, for Alexa Bliss and the next steps.”
Buddy Murphy can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.
Featured image: WrestlingWorld.co
