WWE NXT: All 26 Champions in Brand’s History, Ranked

21. Blake and Murphy

In early 2015, a duo named Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy steadily broke into the NXT Tag Team Division. Their booking was mostly pretty quiet, with them steadily working their way into more even matches than playing the role of enhancement talent. This was until they shockingly won the NXT Tag Team Championship on an episode of WWE NXT in January 2015, defeating the Lucha Dragons.

This pushed Blake and Murphy to the top of the ladder within an instant, a somewhat surprising move with Enzo Amore and Big Cass sitting there as arguably the most over talents on the brand. However, if the plan had been to hand the belts to the team that needed them more, then it was the correct call.

Unfortunately, the reign of Blake and Murphy did little for the NXT Tag Team Division. They went through a lengthy feud with Amore and Cass, which should have helped, but they never broke through as the next exciting tag team that needed to be called up. It wasn’t any particular thing, it’s just neither Blake or Murphy had a shining characteristic that made them stick out as an alpha team.

Being managed by Alexa Bliss helped get the Texan and Aussie onto the map, as her newfound heel work was a breath of fresh air and led to a pushed singles run at the end of the year. The Blissful One overshadowed these two, though, from the time she aligned with them to the time they broke up.

Blake and Murphy have been off TV for the majority of the time since losing the titles at TakeOver: Brooklyn. Both remain signed with WWE, but on the outside, the future doesn’t seem bright.