Grayson Waller discusses working WWE Main Event and looks ahead to the biggest match of his career, an NXT Championship opportunity at NXT New Year's Evil 2023.
In recent months, WWE has used their Main Event program, exclusive to Hulu, to put NXT superstars in front of new audiences and give them a brief experience of what it's like to wrestle on the WWE main roster.
On the November 24, 2022, episode of WWE Main Event, Grayson Waller wrestled Akira Tozawa in what was a losing effort for the Australian Superstar. However, he has fond memories of his match with Tozawa.
During a recent interview with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Waller praised the fact that Tozawa wrestled in his traditional wrestling gear as opposed to his ninja attire and boasted about the big-time feel of a main roster crowd.
"It was the best. I think with this NXT crowd, it’s the same people every week. They love it, they come every week. But you kind of get used to it. It becomes the same [vibe]. I know who’s going to sit in this seat and all those types of things. I went out there for that match with Tozawa, you look around and you’re like, ‘Wow. This is what the big time’s like.’ But I felt completely comfortable. You never really know until you walk through the curtain. You can kinda see the crowd beforehand, you can kinda hear it, but you don’t know until you walk through, and the moment I walked through, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is where I belong.’ It was proper Tozawa, too. He wasn’t a ninja anymore. It was like an actual Tozawa to fight against, which was sick. That’s where I belong, and I think a lot of people will know that," said Waller.
Waller will try to advance his WWE career to the next level as he takes on Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship at NXT New Year's Evil on January 10. Speaking about the upcoming match, Waller spoke about returning to his home promotion, PWA in Australia, to train for this match, as he considers it the biggest match of his career.
"This is the biggest show, start off the year, NXT Championship. This is the biggest match in my career. But I knew this was coming. I knew me and Bron were heading on a collision course a year ago," said Waller. "So since then, I've watched every Bron Breakker match; It doesn't matter if it's on TV, whether it was at a live event at some of the coconut shows that we do, whether it's here at the PC, maybe he's doing some training, my eyes have been on him. So I've been studying that guy for a while. He's not smart enough to have done the same thing for me. So I know exactly what Bron's bringing to the table. He's a machine, he should not move that fast for how big he is. So I was smart enough to know that, and I know what I'm going to do. I went home recently for about ten days, I went home, and I trained with some of my guys from PWA, my company that I work with back home because I needed people who know me and know me best and get away from the distractions because this is the biggest match of my career."
Furthermore, Grayson Waller tells Sean Ross Sapp that he believes he will be able to outsmart Breakker to take the championship from him. However, he knows he's in for an ass-kicking on January 10.
"I'm being honest right now. I'm going into this — I'm always honest; that's the thing. I'm not stronger than him," Waller admitted. "I remember the first day I walked in the PC, I went to the gym, and that dude was like, [doing some] ungodly amount of benchpresses like it was nothing. Usually, I'm faster than people, he's faster than me. He has this amateur wrestling background. So he's a better wrestler than me, too. I'm going to get my ass kicked next week, hands down. He's going to beat me up. But I'm smart enough and my cardio is good enough that when it gets to that 10-minute mark, when he's gassed, and he's trying to bark, but he can't get the breath out. That's when I'm going to take advantage because I'm a veteran. People don't realize that I've been doing this for a while, and I'm very, very smart at what I do. I always find a way to win. Deadline, I found a way to win, and it always happens. Bron is not smart enough to find a way to beat me."
As Waller recently returned home, he's looking to make his home country proud, and should Grayson Waller win the match against Breakker, he will become the first-ever Australian-born NXT Champion.
Grayson Waller will try his best to make history and become NXT Champion at New Year's Evil. Fightful will have live coverage of the event on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, as it airs on the USA Network at 8 p.m. eastern time.
