WWE SmackDown: Buddy Murphy feuding with Ali will help spread the secret

While his untelevised SmackDown debut was an underwhelming start to his main roster career, Buddy Murphy feuding with Ali could make up for it.

The 2018-19 calendar year of WWE content served as a coming out party for Buddy Murphy. The former NXT Tag Team Champion spent 2017 having critically acclaimed, but untelevised matches on NXT house shows. The way that Murphy would dazzle live crowds in consistent performances without a camera present helped earn him the nickname of “The Best Kept Secret.”

WWE finally decided to spread the secret by calling him up to 205 Live. Within months, Buddy Murphy was quietly pushed as the brand’s top heel before winning the Cruiserweight Championship. Murphy held that title for 183 days before losing it to Tony Nese in grandiose fashion at WrestleMania. Naturally, the next logical step to Murphy’s career would be a promotion, and promoted he was.

Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that Buddy Murphy would be called up to the main roster and making his SmackDown debut very soon. Weeks passed and for some reason, soon never came. That is, until last Tuesday when Buddy finally made his long awaited debut. Don’t feel bad if you missed it. A lot of us did. If we didn’t just so happen to check our YouTube subscriptions that day, many of us would have been out of the loop.

That’s right. WWE debuted the former Cruiserweight Champion in a YouTube exclusive promo filmed during the commercial break and never so much as mentioned it on television. It was like it never even happened.

This was a real disappointing way to debut the guy who carried 205 Live on his back for the past year. In a weird way, I think I get it. Give the Best Kept Secret a secret debut, right? Well, it sucks, WWE. It’s not clever. It’s just bad and you should feel bad because Buddy deserved a better welcoming to Team Blue. At the very least, he deserved to be introduced on television for crying out loud.

However, underwhelming debut aside, that isn’t to say that WWE can’t make up for it. They can make up for giving Buddy a meandering first few steps on the blue stage by delivering a solid first feud against Ali. At least that seems to be the direction they plan to go in – Buddy “debuted” by cutting a promo against The Light following his match – and honestly, this would be the perfect first main roster feud for Buddy Murphy.

One of the things that helped Buddy build a name for himself on the purple brand was having spectacular contests against Ali. The two even had a show stealing bout on a WWE pay-per-view – Survivor Series – for the Cruiserweight Title. The feud paid off in strides by making both men look great. One could argue that the stunning performances from both men was enough to convince WWE to call up Ali to SmackDown a few weeks later. If Ali and Buddy could somehow duplicate those classic outings for the blue brand, it would look great for both men.

For Buddy, he’ll emerge out of the feud as a new star in the making for SmackDown. For Ali, he will continue to rise up the ranks as an emerging young star in his own right. It’s a win-win situation. Sometimes, wrestlers don’t need complex storylines or colorful characters to get over with crowds. Sometimes, all they have to do is have great matches. Ali and Buddy have proven time and time again that they can have a great match against each other on any given day of the week.

WWE may have dropped the ball in providing us with our first glimpse of Buddy Murphy on SmackDown, but they couldn’t possibly go wrong if they tried when it comes to booking another feud between him and Ali.