Trevor Murdoch Talks About The Behind-The-Scenes Environment Of WWE In The Mid-2000s

Trevor Murdoch recalls his WWE experience and some of the backstage stress that existed when he was a WWE Superstar.

Trevor Murdoch, in 2007, was a multi-time WWE World Tag Team Champion. During his time with WWE, he was paired with Lance Cade and would go on to have pay-per-view matches against The Hardy Boyz and a brief feud on Monday Night Raw against D-Generation X. However, behind the scenes, the WWE environment can be difficult to navigate, especially at that time.

Speaking to Sean Ross Sapp prior to NWA 74, Trevor Murdoch detailed some of his frustrations that could arise in a cut-throat locker room back in the day.

“That was the hard part and a lot of fans don’t understand, you work your ass off to get to the number one company in the world and you get there and you’re like, ‘Wow. This is fucking horseshit. This is crazy the thought process and how they do business at times. They seem to make things so much harder for themselves and for their talent.’ It was a crazy, crazy time. I think ultimately over the last several years, they’ve been able to bring an atmosphere of professionalism to the locker room and a behavior, an expectation that their wrestlers behave in a different manner, a very professional manner,” he said. “It was a really tough atmosphere, man. It was at a time where guys would backstab other guys to get opportunities. That was one of the good thing about Lance and I. We’d wrestle and if we wanted to go party in whatever town we were in, we just wanted to go have fun and enjoy the atmosphere, we’d always ask the boys, ‘Hey, where you guys going?’ ‘Oh, this is a hot spot, man. We’re going to this place, right next to this place.’ Lance and I would go, ‘Great. We’re gonna go over here and we’re gonna go do this.’”

Trevor then recalled a night out with Lance Cade, Melina, John Morrison, and Edge. Trevor says that with The Rated R Superstar, they knew they wouldn’t be getting into any trouble and they all had the time of their lives. 

“Back then some of the boys would go party with you and pretend like they were your friends and you guys would get all f’d up, then go back to the office knowing what you had just done and stooge you out for a piss test,” he said. “That was their way to try to get rid of who they thought was a problem. I remember a time, this is a little story—kind of funny—Lance went to a town, not gonna say the town, but Lance wanted to go out that night. It’s really kind of flip-flopped, I was always the guy that wanted to go out and experience the town and have a good time, but he wanted to go out. I said, ‘No.’ He goes, ‘Well, a couple of the guys said they’re gonna be at this bar. I’m gonna go there.’ I said, ‘Well, if it’s a good time, call me. I’ll get a cab. We’ll roll on down there.’ There wasn’t Uber at the time.

So he calls me forty-five minutes later, ‘Hey, man. This place is kicking. Come on down.’ So I take a cab down there and this bar was called Union Station,” Murdoch continued. “So I walk in, open up the door, and all the bar stools are up on the bars, there’s dust on everything. I’m like, ‘Alright. Lance, good rib, buddy. You got me out of the house. Good job.’ But I look back in the back of the room, there’s this door and you can see the outline of the door because there are lights blinking through it and you’re hearing this music. I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’ I go to open up the door and—I hope this doesn’t sound bad—in every dance video I’ve ever seen, people are getting it and the whole stage is full of people. I’m just this redneck with the door open going open, ‘Oh, this is the rib. Ha-ha. You got me.’”

Ultimately, Trevor found his co-workers on the balcony of the venue and they all proceeded to have fun with the majority of the locker room just wanting to be successful and not have any issues.
 

“I hear, ‘Trevor! TREVOR!’ I look up, and up in the balcony is Lance, Edge, Melina, Johnny Nitro and they’re all up there just getting it, having a good time, man. I’m like, ‘Okay, alright.’ I go up there and we started having some drinks and had just the best time. It wasn’t but six of us. We all knew exactly what we did. Edge was there, so we knew there wasn’t gonna be any trouble. So, yeah, it was those kinds of things that we’d go and do away from the majority of the boys just to try not to have any issues. We just wanted to wrestle and be successful, that’s all.”

Ultimately, Trevor Murdoch would not return to WWE following his release in the late-2000s. Instead, he is currently the champion of the NWA. With a much more free environment in the locker room, Trevor is looking forward to defending his title at NWA 74 against Tyrus.

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.