5 Unscripted WWE moments that led to someone receiving a push
When a WWE Superstar receives a push, it usually means that the company’s decision-makers are keen to give that person an extended run on television in an attempt to encourage the audience to connect with their character.
In July 2019, for example, Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue reported that Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman wanted to give Braun Strowman a “monster push”, and we have since seen the former Wyatt Family member defeat Bobby Lashley in a Last Man Standing match and hint at a possible interest in challenging for the Universal Championship.
While Strowman is an example of a push that the creative team planned in advance, there have also been many incidents throughout WWE history where an unscripted moment has led to a Superstar receiving an unlikely push.
In this article, let’s count down five of those moments and look at how the push came about.
#5 Fans spot Buddy Murphy after Roman Reigns attack
The inspiration for this article comes from a recent report that Buddy Murphy was not originally supposed to be involved in the Roman Reigns attacker storyline.
According to the Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez, Murphy’s background presence in the aftermath of the forklift incident on the July 30 episode of SmackDown Live was simply a coincidence, and WWE decided to add the former Cruiserweight Champion to the storyline because so many fans were speculating that he might have been responsible for the attack.
The following week, Murphy claimed in a backstage segment with Reigns that Rowan was the culprit. This led to him competing in a match on the SummerSlam 2019 kickoff show against Apollo Crews, which ended in a disqualification after interference from Rowan.
Two days later, Reigns defeated the Aussie in one of the best matches of 2019 on SmackDown Live, leading the former Shield member to declare that the “secret’s out” and that Murphy is no longer WWE’s “Best Kept Secret”.