Former WWE Superstar Trevor Murdoch has revealed how an altercation between, WWE Hall of Famers, Ric Flair & Shawn Michaels led to himself and tag partner Lance Cade capturing the WWE World Tag Team Championships for a second time
Speaking with Liam Alexander-Stewart of Inside The Ropes, current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, Trevor Murdoch would detail his relationship with NWA & WWE legend Ric Flair following his ‘last match’ in Nashville against Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal.
“I’m one of the few guys that had a chance to wrestle Ric Flair in WWE. So it was for me, it was a nostalgia scenario because me being a Harley Race guy, when I was watching Harley’s tapes trying to train and grow up, there was always a huge section of Harley and Flair. So when I was watching Harley, I was watching Flair. So to be able to go to WWE and then have matches with him was almost, like I was a fangirl on the inside or a fanboy. But then once you get in the ring with him, you’re like, okay, like, shit’s real. Then you realize why he was a 16-time champ.”
Continuing, the six-time tag team champion would explain what it is about Ric Flair that makes him one of the best of all time.
“That guy [Flair] goes in there and his brain just automatically takes off and sometimes you just got to kind of try to keep up with his thought process. I was there when Ric had his last match with Shawn in WWE. In my opinion, I thought that was a great way to end it. He obviously didn’t feel like he went out the way he wanted to and if recall correctly WWE was kind of like not wanting to put him back in the ring because they were concerned for his health.”
The 41-year-old would follow up, revealing that it was an altercation between Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels that led to one of Cade & Murdoch’s WWE World Tag Team title runs.
“I will say this little tidbit story about Ric. [Lance] Cade and I we were kind of floundering in WWE and we were going out on house shows, killing it, just having great matches. The scouting reports going back to the office were off the charts. I mean, the agents were showing us ‘this is what we’re writing, boys.’ ‘We’re telling them, that you guys are doing great.’ But the office just wasn’t for some reason, they just weren’t biting on it.
I will speak out and say this for Ric. Shawn Michaels was kind of our guy because he had trained Lance and, unknowing to those two guys [Ric and Shawn], Lance and I watched Ric go over and chew Shawn’s a** about us because he was telling him, you’ve got to stand up for those guys. You’ve got to speak up for those guys. Those guys are going out there busting their ass and no one in the office is paying attention. If you don’t fight for those guys, nobody else will.
Ric really went to bat for us, and in turn, Shawn went to bat for us. I am not saying that Shawn needed to be goaded into that situation…but sometimes people mess up. They have their own shit going on and Flair just brought it to his attention. Sure enough, we were on TV that next week, we were running through people like we were doing on house shows and we ended up getting another world tag team title run out of it because of that.
Trevor Murdoch and Lance Cade would enjoy three World Tag Team Title runs in the WWE between 2005 and 2007. Cade would, unfortunately, pass away in the Summer of 2010 following apparent heart failure caused by an accidental overdose in his home in San Antonio, Texas.
Murdoch is the current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, in his second reign with the iconic championship, he is currently set to defend his title against Tyrus [FKA Brodus Clay] at NWA’s 74th Anniversary Show on August 27th and 28th.
Fans can watch the event via FITE for just $39.99 for both nights of what is sure to be an incredible event! Many thanks to NWA for facilitating our interview and many thanks to Trevor for taking the time out to speak with us.
If you use any quotes from this interview please prove a H/T to Liam Alexander-Stewart of Inside The Ropes and link back to the original article.