NXT Star Buddy Murphy recently spoke with Scott Fishman of Channel Guide Magazinewhile promoting the current NXT UK tour. Here are some highlights:
On being WWE’s first Australian-born champion:
“It was a huge honor. It was quite an accomplishment for me. I wasn’t aware it went beyond that until the Australian fans hit me up on Twitter to inform me. I did a little research and was the first Australian-born to ever hold a championship. It’s something nobody can take away from me. It’s awesome. Speechless is the right word.”
On how he was paired with Blake because of Dusty Rhodes’ suggestion:
“We both had a similar look. A lot of people get us mixed up as brothers. So when we were put together we had a trial run that did pretty well. We’ve been tagging for about a year-and-a-half now. I think Blake and I are just starting to get to where we want now with our tag team wrestling and psychology. I think we are really better now than we have ever been in our career.
Dusty was a huge part of bringing me out of my shell. I was this shy kid, and Wes was this outgoing Texan. He saw potential in us both in bringing us together. We found magic there. We owe our careers, our tag team run and our tag team championship run. We owe it all to Dusty.”
How big NXT has gotten since he arrived:
“When I first came here they couldn’t really draw. Our product wasn’t known to the world like it is now. So when we did these shows we used to have like 10 or 15 people sometimes. Now we are selling out with 400 to 500 people and more on bigger events. To when I first started to now is night and day. To be part of this whole thing, it’s great. There is not one person at the Performance Center who doesn’t work hard.
We all bust our butts every single day to become the best. We have the best brand, so we are trying to show the world. The moment it kind of stood out was in Brooklyn. We sold out the Barclays Center. It’s the same venue as SummerSlam with thousands of fans watching NXT and screaming NXT. You go from a little town drawing five people, 10 people to big arenas. This is NXT today.”
