Royce Keys explains why he worked dark matches after WWE debut
Working dark matches helped Royce Keys get acclimated to WWE after his Royal Rumble debut.
Between the Rumble and his SmackDown arrival, the former Powerhouse Hobbs wrestled several weeks of dark matches. Keys, while being interviewed by Sam Roberts on SiriusXM, noted that it was actually his idea to have those matches while he was waiting for his official TV debut. He pitched the idea to Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who agreed to it.
Keys said it did get under his skin that fans online were negative about his several-week absence from TV after the Rumble. People backstage reassured Keys that he should not let it bother him.
“It got under my skin for a hot second, and I had Hunter, I had Bobby Roode, and I had Cody, Randy, I have a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t let that sh*t bother you, because they don’t know what you’re doing.’ It got out there that I did some dark matches,” Keys said. ‘But I asked Hunter and he agreed, if I could do these darks. Like, who wouldn’t want to wrestle in front of a live crowd, open up the show, get everybody ready, you know, get it going in two different cities a week. I did Raw and SmackDown every week until my debut.”
Keys said that, by the time he defeated Berto in his SmackDown debut last Friday, wrestling in WWE felt as comfortable as tying his shoes.
“I’m with it. I’m with the grind, I’ve been grinding my whole life,” Keys said. “I was totally comfortable Friday, the debut. I was comfortable. I was with it. Just like getting up, putting on your shoes, tying your shoes. Like, I was comfortable doing it.”
To help introduce Keys to the audience, WWE produced a video with Keys discussing the adversity he’s overcome in life. It took a lot for Keys to open up, but he feels like he was built for this and wants to do anything he can to help inspire others.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.