According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Friday Night SmackDown star Murphy has been affected by the recent release of Steve Cutler.
With a plan in place for the Mysterio family and Murphy to battle King Corbin and his Knights of The Lone Wolf stable in six-man action over the coming months, everything was forced to alter when the company released Steve Cutler after it was revealed that he and Deonna Purrazzo broke rules and attended a New Year’s Eve party during a pandemic prior to testing positive.
With one man missing from the affray, it wouldn’t have made storyline sense to continue with three babyfaces against two heels and so the Australian was promptly dropped from the storyline, becoming an unwilling victim of circumstance.
Now, Dave Meltzer has taken to The Wrestling Observer Radio to tell the story of what went down and how Murphy was put to the side thanks to a situation that wasn’t his fault:
“Poor Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake ended up being the victims of this whole thing being dropped. They booked him [Murphy] into this thing with Aalyah and they haven’t figured out how to get out of it. There was going to be Rey Mysterio, Dominik Mysterio and Buddy Murphy against Corbin, Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler. You take Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler out, there’s no spot for Murphy unless you want to make these Dominik Mysterio matches 3-on-1 instead of 2-on-1. So they decided to go with the 2-on-1 so Buddy Murphy don’t got a spot. They got this angle going and they just dropped it. So Buddy Murphy is an unfortunate victim of that.”
King Corbin’s enmity with Rey and Dominik Mysterio continued at the WWE Royal Rumble on January 31, 2021, when the son of the Lucha libre legend eliminated his royal foe and then pinned him on the February 5 edition of Friday Night SmackDown.
Buddy Murphy hasn’t been seen on WWE television since the December 4, 2020, edition of the blue brand when he lost to Corbin in singles action.
Credit for the interview: The Wrestling Observer Radio