Murphy Reveals Involvement In 2019 Roman Reigns WWE SmackDown Storyline Was 'A Big Mistake'
The angle that gave Murphy his chance on the main roster
Jul 12, 2021
Murphy has revealed his involvement in a Roman Reigns storyline on WWE SmackDown in 2019 was 'a big mistake', caused by accidently being in the background for one of his segments.
A story on the blue brand saw Reigns avoid catastrophe when a pile of scaffolding fell on him, leading to a hunt for the alleged attacker. Eagle-eyed viewers spotted Murphy in the background, leading to multiple segments and a match between the two on SmackDown.
As a result, Murphy was given a chance to shine on the WWE main roster and show what he can do, leading to his involvement in multiple big storylines. However, at his own admission, his inclusion in the Reigns storyline was completely accidental.
Speaking to Fightful, he said: "That was a big mistake. It was not meant to happen.
"At the time, during commercials, they would send a guy out to cut a promo to the house and then leave so they didn’t have to wrestle. It was a thing for a couple of weeks. The first time I did, I did the promo and it went online. The following week, I changed it up and it didn’t go online. They gave me one and it got scrapped. They gave me another one like, ‘say something like this.’ ‘I don’t feel comfortable saying this stuff.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘I feel like an idiot saying it. You’re saying the best-kept secret will be revealed, but you haven’t told me when that’s going to happen. I feel silly saying it over and over and over again. I could be saying this for two and a half years for all I know.’
"They gave me this promo to do and I’m like, ‘Again? I’m not saying it.’ ‘What would you like to say?’ I said, ‘I’ll think about it.’ I walk down and went between some cases and was going over stuff. I wanted to use the fire…I was ticked off because they kept giving me things that weren’t going anywhere and I didn’t want to say the same things over and over. As I’m doing that, I look over and see Roman walk past. Didn’t think anything to it. Did the promo, left the show.
"I left earlier and I got a random message from Elias and he goes, ‘Did I just spot a wild Murph?’ ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘On SmackDown.’ ‘What?’ I go on Twitter and it was blowing up. I’m like, ‘Oh shit.’ They thought it was me or Goldberg because he had the same baseball t-shirt.
"It was great because it did (get me on TV), by accident. That was not meant to happen. That was not what they wanted and I hoped it didn’t fall negatively on me. Especially when the boys are texting you and now they are thinking things. To be fair, they didn’t yell ‘clear!’"
