WWE NXT Superstar Buddy Murphy recently spoke with Fox Sports Australia to promote WrestleMania 34. The full interview is at this link. Murphy revealed that he was frustrated over how he was being used in NXT after the team with Wesley Blake was nixed in 2016.

"Sitting on the sidelines for that long, it got under my skin a lot because I had so much to offer," Murphy said. "I felt like the world hadn't even seen a glimpse of what I'm able to do. Being in a tag team, it's on myself but we were the champs and we won the championships early in our careers and that kind of got to our heads a little bit.

"We went out there and win, lose or draw we didn't care and once we lost them and couldn't get a win, we slowly got pushed down the ladder. Where do you go from there? I didn't have anything to grab onto. It's a tough time. I was working my butt off on those live events. I was stealing the show every night but the stage is a lot smaller. There was a time I put a deadline on myself and it was WrestleMania.

"I needed to do something because I felt like I was a diamond in the rough that had all the potential in the world but didn't get to use it. Maybe I was thinking, this isn't for me? A lot of things were going through my head. I had a little deadline to make stuff happen and 205 was my out and how I was going to showcase to the world who I am and what I am."

Murphy admitted that he was hesitant about going to WWE 205 Live at first.

"Dropping 25 pounds was something I was unsure about," he said. "It seemed like a pointless adventure in a way. I was sitting in the dark in NXT. I'd lost the championships, our team disbanded, the last time I was on television was when NXT was in Melbourne (mid last year), that was the last time I was seen. I was doing NXT live events and I was stealing the show every night. I felt like I was under-utilised and overlooked. Once that tournament was announced, I thought what better platform? I saw that as the opportunity. I was lucky enough to steal one of the 16-man slots."

Source: Fox Sports Australia