Murdoch's Original SD! Plans, How He Was Released, & More

Prior to his release last Thursday, there was an idea for Trevor Murdoch to be involved in a program with MVP on SmackDown. An angle was proposed for them to do another "Odd Couple" angle. The idea was for them do some comedy segments, and then feud with Murdoch as the babyface. However, it probably didn't get off the drawing board because it would have been too similar to MVP's drawn-out program with Matt Hardy that only recently ended. There were also plans involving a comedy angle with Jimmy Wang Yang which didn't please Murdoch.

Regarding his release, it came as a surprise to a lot of people since he was booked on some house shows with MVP. Also, SmackDown head writer Michael Hayes specifically requested him before the draft. Johnny Ace called Murdoch to inform him about his release from the company, although Vince McMahon must approve of all terminations. Ace essentially told Murdoch, "Your character is going nowhere and creative has nothing for you." The "creative doesn't have anything for you" line, which Johnny Ace often uses, and Jim Ross did before him, is used to let people down easy because in many cases being fired from WWE is the end of their childhood dream. It sounds better than saying "we don't need you anymore" or "you're not very good." People close to Murdoch are saying he's taking the release surprisingly well.

On another note, Hayes had booked some mid-card ideas for Murdoch, but was not aware of his release from the company until the company sent out an internal memo right after Murdoch was informed. Some people would normally know ahead of time about a release, but they didn't see this one coming.