Before he was tearing it up on Monday Night RAW in matches with Aleister Black and being tag team champions with Seth Rollins, Buddy Murphy was a part of the Cruiserweight division and commonly appeared on 205 Live. He was Cruiserweight Champion for a good deal of his tenure there, and was having some of the best matches of his career. While the 205 Live roster was close knit, they constantly had to fight to win over crowds due to their awful schedule.
The Local Band Following AC/DC
Currently 205 Live is aired after Smackdown Live, essentially acting like a third hour of action for the audience. This is the biggest flaw of the brand, as Murphy mentioned in an interview with Metro.co.uk.
‘Yeah, 205 had the hardest job because we went on after the main show. We were the local band following AC/DC – so we went out there when the crowds have already seen all the stars that they wanted to. We had a tough job to get these fans that want to go home, and get them onto their seats. It made our jobs really hard, but it made it a great learning experience to work in front of those crowds and bring them back.’
Many times a fantastic match on 205 Live would generate great reactions from whatever fans didn’t already leave after the conclusion of Smackdown. Fans have wanted 205 Live to move over to being taped at Full Sail University, the home of NXT. The smaller venue and them being the attraction that fans are coming for would have let the efforts of the talented division go to waste often.
Buddy Muprhy Credits 205 Live For His Success
The hard work Murphy gave on 205 Live came in handy in the end. It would show the higher ups in the company what they were missing on RAW & Smackdown. Once he got a chance at Roman Reigns, he showed everyone who he was and why he is a star.
‘205 was the door opening for me,’ he added. ‘People ask me about NXT – and I always correct them and say “I’m not NXT, I’m 205 Live. It is my home, it was my birth. NXT – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – they missed this ship, so to speak. You can tell by the quality that I produced.’
Murphy was a former NXT Tag Team Champion, but once he lost that championship he was quickly lost in the shuffle until his rebirth on 205 Live.
Do you think WWE should alter how they handle 205 Live? Let us know in the comments down below.
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