Stipulation matches can bring out the best in some competitors. Dependent on sheer ambition, courage, and confidence, it takes a lot to participate in these particular matches and to plan them out. To his surprise, former "WWE NXT" star and collegiate wrestler Damon Kemp real name Bobby Steveson never thought in his three-year career with WWE that he would partake in the first-ever "NXT" Underground Match with in-ring enemy turned real-life friend, Eddy Thorpe.
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"That was great," Kemp said about the match in an interview with "The Wrestling Classic." "I think Eddy was getting there too [debuting for 'NXT']. I think I was his first big feud. I was really familiar with him... We're pretty close now. We hang out on the outside."
Kemp recalls feeling sandwiched when putting this match together with Thorpe.With no general guidance from producers on what was expected from this contest, both men felt tremendous pressure to bring back this shoot-style match afterits unfavorable reception in the past.
"So, planning the match, we heard that we were going to do an Underground match, and I guess Iheard before that it didn't go over that well...so, we had a lot on our plate," Kemp mentioned. "We were like the guinea pigs of hopefully bringing it back...We wanted a good physical match; everything has to be laid in there. Eddy and I, we planned that match. Everything that was in that match, we put that together. We weren't told what they wanted...the only thing we knew was the time... eight minutes."
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While he set out to put on a great match, Kemp admitted that the reactions took him by surprise afterward. With that in mind, let's find out what he had to say.
Stuck between double tapings, Damon Kemp and Eddy Thorpe's match on the July 4, 2023 edition of "WWE NXT" was the final bout of the night. With only eight minutes scheduled, their hard-hitting fight saw Thorpe gain the victory. Thorpe may have won the overall contest, but both men won the "MVP" award that night for going out there with no safety net and hoping their battle would bring relevance to the Underground style for the first time ever, which it did.
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"We thought of it as if they didn't do another match after this, we sucked," Kemp said. "That day, we did a double taping. We were the last match...everything was stacked against us. We literally wrestled at 11 p.m. at night...We killed it...Me and Eddy take great pride in bringing 'NXT' Underground back."
Since the favorable reception from Kemp and Thorpe's match last year, two more Underground matches were showcased, with Thorpe winning his second battle against Dijak on December 26, 2023, and the first-ever women's Underground match between Lola Vice and Natalya, with Vice as the victor, at this year's Spring Breakin'. Not long after his career-defining match, Kemp joined "NXT's"No Quarter Catch Crew beforeleavingWWE this past July. He is currently a free agent.
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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Wrestling Classic" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
