Buddy Murphy: 5 pivotal moments that show he was destined for WWE's main event scene
This week's episode of RAW appears to have indicated what many have known for a while – Buddy Murphy is no longer the company’s ‘Best Kept Secret.’
That may well have been the moniker by which the Australian superstar was known for the first few months of his ‘main roster’ career, but the fact that he has more than a lot to offer is now well and truly out there.
His apparent alliance with Seth Rollins and the AOP lifts him firmly into the upper echelons of WWE’s programming, establishing him as a genuine main event-level talent.
It’s also a continuation of a rapid ascent for the 31-year-old, who has enjoyed quite the year of action onscreen. In fact, there have been plenty of indications that the Melbourne-born grappler was destined for exactly such a role.
Here we detail 5 of the signs that Buddy Murphy has been heading straight for WWE’s main event picture.
#5 Cruiserweight Champion
Rewind to October 2018, and land yourself in Melbourne at the city’s iconic Cricket Ground. WWE are staging the Super Show-Down, a show headlined by the No Disqualification match between Triple H and The Undertaker.
Despite that hefty billing, however, there’s one more name that the 70,000-odd crowd have come to see – their hometown hero Buddy Murphy.
On this night, Murphy is challenging for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, then held by Cedric Alexander. It has been seen that WWE superstars appearing in their hometowns often suffer chastening defeats or an embarrassment or two, but this event proved to be the exception. The two were given just a brief time to work - just over ten minutes to be exact – but put on a cracking bout nonetheless, with Murphy picking up a dream win that saw him claim his first singles WWE title.
He proved to be more than just a flash-in-the-pan champion, too, by racking up a succession of pay-per-view wins at Survivor Series, TLC, and the Royal Rumble to name just a few. His reign was a lengthy one by today’s standards, coming to an end at Wrestlemania in 2019 at the hands of Tony Nese.