Royce Keys Asked Triple H For Dark Matches Between WWE Royal Rumble And TV Debut

WWE's Royce Keys has explained why he wanted to wrestle in dark matches before his TV debut. 

Keys, formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs, had a significant gap between his WWE debut at the WWE Royal Rumble and his television debut on "WWE SmackDown" on April 10. During that period, he wrestled several dark matches, which he revealed on "Notsam Wrestling" was his idea that he pitched to WWE CCO Paul Levesque.

"It got under my skin [speculation about his whereabouts] for a hot second, and I had Hunter had Bobby Roode, and I've had, you know, Cody, Randy — I had a lot of people tell me, 'Don't let that sh*t bother you because they don't know what you're doing.' It got out there that I did some dark matches, but I asked Hunter, and he agreed," he said. 

The former AEW star explained why he was keen to work dark matches, stating he did so on both "Raw" and "SmackDown" until his television debut.

"Like, who wouldn't want to wrestle in front of a live crowd. Open up the show, get everybody ready, get it going, and, you know, in two different cities a week. You know, I did Raw and Smackdown every week until my debut. I put that GIF out with the dude with the seasoning. We was cooking. For Paul [Triple H] to be like, 'Yeah, let's do it. Like, you want to get after it.' [I was] like, 'Hell yeah, I want to get after it. I'm here. I'm not content with just being here. I want to effing work. I'm with it. I'm with the grind. I've been grinding my whole life, you know?"

Keys added that the work that he had put into his dark matches helped him be comfortable by the time he made his "SmackDown" debut. A week after his TV debut, Keys had his first big success as he won the Andre the Giant Memorial 2026 Battle Royal match.