Vince McMahon did not want released WWE star to have a cowboy gimmick
Wesley Blake was told to change his character early on in his career after being informed that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon disliked cowboy gimmicks.
The highlight of Blake’s WWE career arguably came in 2015 when he and Buddy Murphy had a 205-day reign as NXT Tag Team Champions. Prior to that, the 33-year-old performed as a cowboy character during his time as a singles competitor in 2014.
Blake, who received his release from WWE in April, spoke about his career with John Poz on the Two Man Power Trip Podcast. He recalled how his original WWE persona suddenly ended due to Vince McMahon’s view on the use of cowboys in wrestling.
“When I got there, we were of course just trying to get on NXT TV,” Blake said. “Once I started doing house shows as the cowboy, I started to get a little bit of TV as the cowboy, but then they told me, ‘Listen, you’re gonna have to drop the cowboy. Vince doesn’t like cowboy gimmicks. He thinks they’re overdone, so you’re gonna have to start doing something else.’”
“Cowboy” Bob Orton, “Cowboy” Bill Watts, Blackjack Mulligan, Blackjack Lanza, The Smokin’ Gunns, and JBL are some of the most notable cowboy wrestling personalities.
Wesley Blake joined forces with Buddy Murphy after his first WWE gimmick ended
Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake’s first televised match as a team ended in defeat against The Lucha Dragons on WWE NXT in August 2014.
Blake said the tag team was created after Performance Center trainer Matt Bloom pitched him the idea one day.
“I started trying to think of something else character-wise and it just so happened I was walking through the PC and Matt Bloom was teaching a class and he calls me over,” Blake said. “He goes, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about tagging?’ I was like, ‘Of course, I love tag team wrestling. That’s kind of my thing.’ He goes, ‘Have you ever thought about tagging with Buddy Murphy?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ So he was like, ‘Well, I’ll just put that out there.’”
Later that day, former NXT creative director Dusty Rhodes asked Wesley Blake to cut a promo with Buddy Murphy. The two men went on to form a successful tag team, with Alexa Bliss – Murphy's ex-fiancée – performing as their manager.
Please credit the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
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