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Will Ospreay Teases A “Buddy” Will Debut In NJPW Soon

By TJR Staff • Published 13th September 2021

It appears as though NJPW wrestling star Will Ospreay is ready to welcome Buddy Matthews (former Buddy Murphy in WWE) to NJPW for an upcoming tour.

Matthews, who had his WWE name shortened to just Murphy during his final run in the company, was released by WWE on June 2, 2021. Some of the other names released on that date were Braun Strowoman Lana, Santana Garrett, Aleister Black and Ruby Riott. Black is in AEW already as Malakai Black while Riott is Ruby Soho in AEW. In Matthews’ case, he has had to wait 90 days for his non-compete clause to expire. The 90 days expired on August 31 and Buddy’s first post-WWE appearance will be for Battleground Championship Wrestling on September 18th in Philadelphia. Matthews will be in singles action against AEW’s Brian Cage.

The NJPW Strong: Autumn Attack tapings are set to take place on Saturday, September 25 in Dallas, Texas.

Ospreay is one of the big NJPW stars set to appear at the tapings and is currently scheduled to face Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks in tag team action with Ospreay getting to team with a mystery partner. Ospreay did an obvious tease on Twitter hinting that Matthews will be his partner.

The next day, Ospreay, who calls himself the “Real IWGP World Heavyweight Champion” said that the man joining him is an “Australian wrestling friend.” Matthews is Australian.

Matthews didn’t reply to Ospreay’s tweet directly but did mention a “William” on Twitter. The facepalm emoji could mean a number of different things.

Buddy Matthews hasn’t been announced by any wrestling company on an exclusive deal yet, but he has been linked to Impact Wrestling in the past.

As for Ospreay, he returned to action recently following a neck injury that put him out of action for three months, which led to him being stripped of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.