Buddy Matthews Pokes Fun at Rhea Ripley and Aalyah's WWE Raw Confrontation

By Connor Casey

Rhea Ripley made her return to WWE television on this week's Monday Night Raw in a backstage segment where she and the rest of The Judgement Day ruined Rey Mysterio's celebration by powerbombing the former world champion through a table. There was a slight continuity nod during the segment as when Ripley first arrived, Mysterio's daughter Aalyah quickly got in her face. Fans may recall that WWE tried to book a storyline where she was in a romantic relationship with Buddy Murphy (now Buddy Matthews), who is currently dating Ripley in real life. 

Matthews addressed the elephant in the room on Twitter, jokingly writing, "I'll let them fight for my custody in a ladder match!" The former Cruiserweight and Tag Team Champion is now on the AEW roster as a member of The House of Black.

Matthews' storyline with Aalyah was met with plenty of resistance from fans as the age gap between the two was quite noticeable. He even admitted in later interviews that he felt uncomfortable with the angle.

"I wasn't comfortable kissing Aalyah. I did that because it was my job and it was going to create more drama in the story. Originally, there was no kiss scripted. They [the producers] went and they talked to Vince about something. They come back and they pitch it to me but they are kind of like weird. Then they say '...and then you kiss her.' I start laughing and go 'f— off.' But then they are like 'No we are serious.' I look at the other producer and he was like [nods head]. I'm like 'No way! How did you come back with this?'" he told Chris Van Vliet last year.

"My whole thing was I had to play it very carefully," he continued. "I said to them 'I'm not going to express feelings to her. I can't pursue her, she has to pursue me.' This was because of the age difference. You don't make it any easier when you use my birthday as 'the message.' So now you have given them [fans] the information of how old is he? How old is she? What? I think them saying 'Happy birthday' basically just outed that. I wasn't comfortable with it, but they didn't help with the situation. I'm like 'What does she [Aalyah] think about it' They go 'She's cool with it.' I'm like 'What!' They went to her first, I thought she was going to shoot it down. So then I go 'What about Rey?' they say 'They're okay with it?' I'm like well if they are okay with it, I can't be the one that goes whatever. I was very blunt with them, I can't pursue her, if I do, I'm a creep. I'm a 'pedo' as people say on the internet. If she goes for me, she's an empowered woman that knows what she wants. I think they sold her on a Hollywood-style kiss. I'm not in Hollywood, what's a Hollywood-style kiss? They explain the camera shots. We are live on TV you can't do these behind the head camera shots. There are 8 cameras on you, who knows which one they are going to shoot you on. If there's a gap, the whole thing is done. Seth was nervous about it, because this whole storyline rides on this one kiss. I'm uncomfortable, and she's new. We are out there and about to cut the promo and I said to her this needs to look good. If you have any second minds, I am giving you the green light. Do whatever you want, it's 100% you. Do what you need to do, this needs to look good. It looked great, the aftermath wasn't great for me. But we are both adults, we are both acting, we gave each other a high 5 after it and that was it."

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