Trevor Murdoch recalls working some dark matches for WWE in 2011.
While Trevor Murdoch’s WWE run is largely defined by his time as a tag team competitor alongside Lance Cade, there was a brief time in 2011 when he returned to the company to work some dark matches.
Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp, Trevor Murdoch reflected on how the 2011 opportunity came about and how he nearly landed a “Val Venis job.”
“That was a strange scenario in itself,” Trevor said. “Shawn Michaels and I have a relationship/friendship, especially with Lance. We ended up on a phone call, I forget why. We were just talking about the business. I’d been away from the company for several years and he had mentioned, ‘You ever thought about coming back?’ I was like, ‘Well, I don’t even know who to talk to.’ ‘Cause things change in that company so much. He was like, ‘Give me a minute, I’ll call you back.’ I get a call ten / fifteen minutes later. Johnny Ace, ‘Hey, Trevor.’ We talked for about ten minutes and asked me if I wanted to come in and do a dark, take a look at me. I was like, ‘Sure, yeah. Let’s see if we can do some business again.’”
Trevor recalled Triple H offering the “Val Venis job” remarking that Stone Cold Steve Austin was once brought a none such a position and that truly, the opportunity for growth is up to the individual performer.
“At the very least I felt, at that time, I can get a Val Venis job. What I mean by that is going out there with young guys, helping elevate them, making them look good, still keeping myself strong, but obviously they win. But go out there, have good matches, and try to take young guys to the next level. So I go in, and I do two dark matches. I think I did a singles match with Evan Bourne and then the next night was against one of the Usos. Had great matches, let everybody know you can still work. You’re still in decent shape,” he recalled.
“I got a call from Hunter that next week saying, ‘Hey, listen. We’re gonna go ahead and bring you in,” he said. “We’re gonna basically put you in that Val Venis role. But I want to tell you something, Trevor. We brought Steve Austin in as a ‘Val Venis role,’ so the opportunity is really up to you.’ I was like, ‘Great, man. This is awesome.’ He goes, ‘We’ll call you, get everything set up and start getting on the road.’ I waited around for like a week and a half, I got a call from Johnny Ace and he gave me damn near virtually the same exit speech as he did when I lost my job. ‘Trevor, with budgets and stuff right now, we’re having a bunch of budget cuts around here. We don’t feel right now, financially, would be a good time to bring you in.’ I was like, ‘…alright.’
“It was a really weird scenario. I just laughed about it,” Murdoch continued. “Because at that time, man, with WWE the worst thing you can do to a WWE wrestler is fire them. That’s the only thing we’re ‘really’ scared of. So once you are fired once, well, we’ve already been through the horrible feeling of being fired and we know what the emotional rollercoaster is. So if you bring us back and let us go, I already know what’s going to happen. It doesn’t have nearly the effect as it did the first time. So I just laughed about it and just continued to look forward. Now I’m at an age where people go, ‘Hey, never say never about WWE.’ There’s a different system there and a stress level there that I don’t ever want to ever deal with again.”
Ultimately, Trevor would not deal with the stress of the WWE landscape ever again and instead, he is now thriving in the National Wrestling Alliance.
Trevor's next big-time match will be against Tyrus at NWA 74 as he defends his World Heavyweight Championship.
Fans can check out the full card for both nights of NWA 74 in our events section and we will have live coverage on August 27 and 28.
