diff --git a/message/messaging_service.cc b/message/messaging_service.cc
index adbb2419612a..077b4f3874f8 100644
--- a/message/messaging_service.cc
+++ b/message/messaging_service.cc
@@ -219,8 +219,6 @@ struct messaging_service::rpc_protocol_server_wrapper : public rpc_protocol::ser
 
 constexpr int32_t messaging_service::current_version;
 
-distributed<messaging_service> _the_messaging_service;
-
 bool operator==(const msg_addr& x, const msg_addr& y) noexcept {
     // Ignore cpu id for now since we do not really support shard to shard connections
     return x.addr == y.addr;
diff --git a/scylla-gdb.py b/scylla-gdb.py
index c3d50c4fd515..f6e782a5f62e 100755
--- a/scylla-gdb.py
+++ b/scylla-gdb.py
@@ -3372,9 +3372,9 @@ def __init__(self):
         gdb.Command.__init__(self, 'scylla netw', gdb.COMMAND_USER, gdb.COMPLETE_NONE, True)
 
     def invoke(self, arg, for_tty):
-        mss = sharded(gdb.parse_and_eval('netw::_the_messaging_service'))
+        mss = sharded(gdb.parse_and_eval('debug::the_messaging_service'))
         if not mss.instances:
-            gdb.write('netw::_the_messaging_service does not exist (yet?)\n')
+            gdb.write('debug::the_messaging_service does not exist (yet?)\n')
             return
 
         ms = mss.local()
diff --git a/test/scylla-gdb/test.py b/test/scylla-gdb/test.py
index 37cc6dc266aa..bb3fa43d696f 100644
--- a/test/scylla-gdb/test.py
+++ b/test/scylla-gdb/test.py
@@ -75,7 +75,6 @@ def dos(cmd, known_broken=False):
 # dos('lsa-segment ???')
 dos('ptr $schema')
 
-# no messaging service yet, but still:
 dos('netw')
 
 # probably empty: