Thursday 7 May 2015

The Blake and Murphy Express

There's not really anything exhilarating about Blake and Murphy, NXT's tag team champions. Their entrance music is some of the most generic ever. Their ring attire is bland. They don't have larger than life physiques or statures. They don't even have first names.

Despite these failings (and I don't know how you can't qualify lack of a first name as anything other than a failing) I like Blake and Murphy. Their music, while generic, has a charm to it. That it sounds like something that would be heard in a club scene on a low budget teen drama adds to its charm. The same goes for their ring gear: it's basic in an endearing sort of way. They work despite their many failings and creative clearly not knowing how to present them as the top tier tag team (within developmental) they clearly want them to be.

Rave music entrance. Doesn't get better than that.
It's not just irony that makes me like Blake and Murphy. They can, when given the opportunity, have a pretty decent tag team match. It helps that being in NXT means they're allowed to experiment and move away from the all-too-familiar formula of main roster doubles bouts. They're allowed to surprise us. And they have some solid double team moves to work with.

It's their out of the ring work that's possibly the best part of their act. Since winning the tag team championships they've established themselves as oblivious heels who act like stereotypical good guys (which nobody will ever do as well as Kurt Angle, but that's some stiff competition). Their interactions with Carmella, giving her flowers and necklaces and vaulting over couches to speak to her have been a particular highlight. They play vaguely creepy unfounded overconfidence incredibly well.

It's unlikely that Blake and Murphy will be seen on RAW and SmackDown any time soon. They're fine for the confines of NXT but the appeal of their act is niche, they'd end up as another Ascension or Los Matadores on the main roster. They're better off in the smaller environment where they can continue to improve. Their current rivalry with Enzo and Cass will almost certainly see Blake and Murphy lose the gold at some point, but it has the potential to be one of those rare feuds that sees championships traded back and forth a few times. In this case there's a chance we'll see Carmella traded across too: she's ripe for a heel turn on Enzo and Cass. Whether she accidentally costs them the gold and switches allegiance after being berated  or actively decides to cause Enzo and Cass to lose doesn't really matter. Her betrayal, while obvious, will get genuine heat because of how disliked Carmella, Blake and Murphy are, and how popular Enzo and Cass are.

They'd need a team name before they got called up anyway. The Blake and Murphy Connection? The Blake and Murphy Experience? The Blake and Murphy Express? The Dubstep Cowboys? All very good options, in my opinion.

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