One of the latest additions to the All Elite Wrestling roster is Buddy Matthews, member of Malakai Black’s faction, The House of Black. Of course, fans likely first saw him in WWE, where he wrestled under the similar name of Buddy Murphy and captured a few titles along the way, including the Cruiserweight Championship.
Despite being appreciated by fans for his in-ring skills, he never really attained much of a high profile in WWE before his release in 2021 — so much that one of his big gimmicks was that he was the “Best Kept Secret” in the company. Let’s take a look at some things fans should know about Buddy Matthews.
10 Started Out In Australia
Born in 1988, Australia, the future Buddy Murphy debuted for Australia’s Professional Championship Wrestling under the ring name Matt Silva. For the most part, Silva kept to his home country, moving on to larger outfits like Melbourne City Wrestling. There, he ended up capturing the MCW Heavyweight Championship, and defended it against notables like Sonjay Dutt and Elliot Sexton (a.k.a. Duke Hudson in NXT) during his nearly 300 days as champion. Other opponents during his run on the indies included Australian Suicide, New Japan’s Robbie Eagles, and J-Rock, otherwise known as Bronson Reed or JONAH.
9 Blake & Murphy
In 2013, the former Matt Silva signed to WWE, where he adopted the ring name Buddy Murphy. His first match would come in November of that year, a six-man tag team match on a house show, with future tag team partner Wesley Blake on the opposite side of the ring. The two would only start tagging together halfway through 2014, debuting in August of that year to take part in a #1 Contendership tournament for the tag belts. As a duo, Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy didn’t gain much momentum on NXT TV, and mostly were there to lose matches.
8 NXT Tag Team Champion
Because of their jobber status, the 1/28/2015 episode of NXT came as a surprise, as Blake and Murphy upset the Lucha Dragons — Sin Cara and Kalisto — in the opening match, winning the NXT Tag Team Championship in less than four minutes.
During their 219-day reign as champions, Blake and Murphy defended the belts against the Lucha Dragons, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady (a.k.a. Big Cass), and The Vaudevillains — that is, until their rematch against The Vaudevillains at the first NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August of 2015. There, the duo would lose the belts to Aiden English and Simon Gotch.
7 Managed By Alexa Bliss
One of Blake and Murphy’s more forgotten but crucial onscreen contributions to WWE television was helping facilitate the heel turn of Alexa Bliss. Before spring of 2015, Bliss was a cross between a magical girl and a cheerleader, but an embarrassing loss on television found her seeking consolation from Blake and Murphy. After they helped her win a match, Bliss returned the favor by helping them retain against Amore and Cassady, becoming the kind of heel fans would know her as on the main roster.
6 The Best Kept Secret
Eventually, Blake and Murphy split up, with Buddy Murphy becoming a singles wrestler again, moving on to 205 Live despite obviously being over 205 pounds. To account for this, backstage weigh-in segments aired, featuring Murphy trying to make the 205 weight, and occasionally failing to do so. As a singles competitor, Buddy Murphy’s gimmick was that the was WWE’s “best kept secret,” an underrated talent ready to blow up. His first foray into the cruiserweight division would have him taking part in a tournament to crown a new champion, but was eliminated in the second round.
5 Cruiserweight Champion
It wasn’t long, however, before Buddy Murphy lived up to the promise of his gimmick. On 205 Live, Murphy put on numerous standout matches, including an impressive challenge for Cedric Alexander’s Cruiserweight Championship. While he wasn’t successful then, he would prove successful at October 2018’s Super Show-Down in Melbourne Australia, winning the title in front of his home country. As Cruiserweight Champion, Buddy Murphy would enjoy a 183-day run with the belt before dropping it to Tony Nese.
4 Seth Rollins’ Disciple
Following that title loss and a brief stint on SmackDown, Buddy Murphy would be drafted to Raw, where he embarked on a brief winning streak and put on some great matches against Aleister Black. However, after several losses to Black, Murphy suffered a mental breakdown and subsequent alignment with the cult leader-like “The Monday Night Messiah” Seth Rollins.
From there, a name change to simply “Murphy” would follow, as well as tag team gold as he and Rollins would beat the Viking Raiders for the Raw Tag Team Championship.
3 Romance Angle With Aalyah Mysterio
Following their loss of the tag team championship, Rollins and Murphy would set their sights on Rey Mysterio and his recently debuted son, Dominik. However, Murphy would inadvertently cost Rollins the match one too many times, leading to a betrayal and subsequent face turn for Buddy Murphy. Despite his antagonism of the Mysterio family, Murphy would soon enter a romance storyline with Rey’s daughter, Aalyah, but nothing would come of it as the angle was unceremoniously dropped for WWE television.
2 Competed For New Japan
After his release from WWE in mid-2021, Buddy Murphy would adopt the name Buddy Matthews and continue to wrestle on the independent scene. Matthews’ in-ring style, heavy on strikes and explicitly influenced by the likes of New Japan Pro-Wrestling stars like Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi, made him an obvious fit for NJPW, so he made his debut for the company at 2021’s Battle in the Valley, wrestling in a losing effort against company ace Kazuchika Okada. Since then, he’s competed on New Japan Strong, taking on Young Lions like Ren Narita and Yuya Uemura.
1 House Of Black
February 2022 saw Buddy Matthews finally make his debut for All Elite Wrestling, a promotion where many expected a workhorse of his ability to show up following his release from WWE. It was on the 2/23/2022 episode of Dynamite where he made his surprise debut, seemingly to help PAC and Penta Oscuro against Brody King and Matthews’ old rival, Malakai (formerly Aleister) Black. Instead, Matthews assisted the villains, joining Malakai’s House of Black faction. It made perfect since, given that Buddy’s been susceptible to cult leaders in the past.