WWE had originally pitched a different in-ring name to Murphy
The confusion surrounding Murphy's in-ring name has been a prevalent problem for a year now. WWE's obsession with having single names led to Murphy dropping 'Buddy'; however, the SmackDown Superstar would have ended up with a completely different name had the original pitch been approved.
Murphy was a guest on the After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves, and the former Cruiserweight Champion recalled the first name that was pitched to him by the WWE.
Murphy initially wanted to incorporate 'Matt' into his in-ring name, but that was ruled out as wrestling already had way too many wrestlers who went by the name. Murphy came up with several other names and sent an email to Byron Saxton.
The names were scattered, and Saxton randomly picked names that matched and sounded right together before pitching it back to Murphy. Out of all the options, 'Jag Cooper' stood out and appealed to Murphy the most.
"So obviously, we pitch names, and I wanted to use 'Matt' so bad, but as you know, there was a lot of Matt's. Using the name Matt was the forbidden fruit. So I pitched a whole heap of these names, and it's funny because I put a lot of effort into these names. And when I had sent the email Byron [Saxton]… when he got the email, I had all the names scattered. So he just picked ones that matched, and he pitched it. And then when they pulled me into the office, they said, 'These are your names,' and I look at the names. And I'm like, 'Okay, well, there's one clear winner here.'
He goes, 'Yeah, there is,' and I was talking to Bill. I said it's this one, and it was 'Jag Cooper.' I was like, that's kind of cool, Jag, and then he's like, 'Yep, that's it.' So then Bill would pull in Norman and goes 'introduce yourself.' I go, 'Hey, I'm Jag Cooper,' and Norman goes, 'Jack?' No Jag. Because of my accent, 'no, redo it,' and then I go, 'Gooday, My name's Jag Cooper'" H/t WrestlingInc
Murphy's WWE status
WWE went ahead with Buddy Murphy in the end, and it has worked out pretty well for the SmackDown Superstar. While Jag Cooper sounds excellent if you ask us, Murphy isn't that bad either.
Murphy is in the midst of a decent push on the Blue brand as he is involved in a relationship angle with Aalyah Mysterio. Murphy is currently scheduled to face Seth Rollins on next week's SmackDown, and the former NXT Star is expected to get loads of TV time as a babyface going forward.