Buddy Murphy Says He Wasn't Comfortable Kissing Aalyah Mysterio
In an appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, former WWE star Buddy Murphy talked about his time wrestling for the 205 Live brand. Murphy spoke fondly of his time wrestling on 205 Live and brought up the inconsistent use of him once he left the brand after dropping the Cruiserweight Championship to Tony Nese.
"My whole time in the cruiserweight, (I) loved it," Murphy said. "I can't be more appreciative of my time in 205 Live. It was fun, I was creative, I was having great matches. We felt like we had a little bit of pull and we could suggest stuff and it would be considered. It was an awesome group of guys, we all travelled together. I win the title, do some great stuff, go to WrestleMania, lose it, pass it to Tony Nese. And then I get drafted to SmackDown. I'm like 'this is it!' But then I don't do anything for 4 to 5 months. Then I just so happen to accidently be in the background of a Roman shot, which gave me a spotlight and had the internet talking.
"When the internet talks they (WWE) can shy away from it. But luckily in my case, they brought attention to it. Then I had this killer match with Roman and the week after I had this killer match with Bryan. Then I was in the King of the Ring against Ali. 3 weeks in a row I have killer matches, but then I'm just dropped. I didn't understand it. I was in talks with Paul Heyman, and he was going to take over RAW. I assumed that he had spoken up and said he wanted me, and the people of SmackDown didn't want to use me. They didn't want to highlight someone who is going to Mondays. They say that if Paul wants to advocate for you, it can work for you or against you. Maybe it worked against me, but I felt like I was delivering. Did I lose out or did you?"
Murphy also talked about his last major storyline in WWE involving himself, Seth Rollins and the Mysterio family. The angle led to a budding romance between Murphy and Rey Mysterio's daughter Aalyah, something that Murphy told Van Vliet he wasn't a huge fan of when it was pitched to him.
"I wasn't comfortable kissing Aalyah," Murphy revealed. "I did that because it was my job and it was going to create more drama in the story. Originally, there was no kiss scripted. They, the producers, went and they talked to Vince about something. They come back and they pitch it to me but they are kind of like weird. Then they say 'and then you kiss her.' I start laughing and go 'f*ck off.' But then they are like 'no we are serious.' I look at the other producer and he just nodded his head. I'm like 'no way! How did you come back with this?' My whole thing was I had to play it very carefully. I said to them 'I'm not going to express feelings to her. I can't pursue her, she has to pursue me.' This was because of the age difference. You don't make it any easier when you use my birthday as 'the message.' So now you have given them (fans) the information of how old is he? How old is she? What? I think them saying 'happy birthday' basically just outed that.
"I wasn't comfortable with it, but they didn't help with the situation. I'm like 'what does she [Aalyah] think about it' They go 'she's cool with it.' I'm like 'what?!' They went to her first, I thought she was going to shoot it down. So then I go 'what about Rey?' They say 'they're OK with it?' I'm like 'well if they are OK with it, I can't be the one that goes whatever.' I was very blunt with them, I can't pursue her, if I do, I'm a creep. I'm a 'pedo' as people say on the internet. If she goes for me, she's an empowered woman that knows what she wants. I think they sold her on a Hollywood style kiss. I'm not in Hollywood, what's a Hollywood style kiss? They explain the camera shots. We are live on TV you can't do these behind the head camera shots. There's 8 cameras on you, who knows which one they are going to shoot you on. If there's a gap, the whole thing is done. Seth was nervous about it, because this whole storyline rides on this one kiss. I'm uncomfortable, and she's new. We are out there and about to cut the promo and I said to her this needs to look good. If you have any second minds, I am giving you the green light. Do whatever you want, it's 100% you. Do what you need to do, this needs to look good. It looked great, the aftermath wasn't great for me. But we are both adults, we are both acting, we gave each other a high 5 after it and that was it."
"The 90 days is to kill all buzz and all hype," Murphy said. "It's so you don't have any momentum when you go somewhere else. I'm not going to blow my load in the first week. I have to expand it over the 3 months. That's why I drop the progress photo. Then I will drop something else. I feel like they hoard a lot of talent, and now they are saturating the talent. It is a business move I believe they are making. If you send out 3 guys, they can do what they want. If you send out 40 guys, the work gets cut. But wrestling can boom again. Now the pandemic is ending, more talent can go to the indies, and the fans can see it all."
You can watch the full interview below.