Grayson Waller reflects on his rivalry with AJ Styles and projects that 2023 will be an excellent year for himself and the WWE NXT brand.
Grayson Waller is one of the young faces of the modern NXT brand, and at NXT New Year’s Evil 2023, he will get his first singles opportunity at Bron Breakker’s NXT Championship.
For Grayson, this is the culmination of a year-long ascension to the top. One of the major launching points for Waller in NXT was his brief rivalry with AJ Styles in early 2022.
Speaking with Scott Fishman of TV Insider, Waller credited the program with Styles as a huge moment for him and another step in showing that he belongs alongside the top names in the industry and not just fanboying for them.
“That was a huge thing for me,” Waller said of his brief 2022 feud with AJ Styles. “I think getting in there and showing I belong alongside them. I think that is what it mainly showed me. It wasn’t ‘hey, how exciting is this? I’m in the ring with AJ Styles.’ I’m not a fanboy anymore like a lot of the guys in the locker room. I’m here to show I’m on the level as all these guys. That match with AJ Styles last year, I may not have won, but I got backstage that night and went to the locker room and was like, “Yeah. I’m right. I do belong here.” It gave me the confidence that there isn’t anyone who can touch me. That’s the attitude I’m going into 2023 with.”
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Speaking about the evolution of the NXT brand overall, Waller feels the current “white and gold” iteration is the perfect marriage of black and gold NXT and NXT 2.0. Waller would also go on to say that 2023 will be NXT’s biggest year yet.
“I think when 2.0 started, a lot of people were negative about it. The majority of those people hadn’t even watched the show at all before. There were guys who were getting opportunities probably before they deserved them,” Waller said.
“Let’s be honest with it. Someone like me during the “Black and Gold” era may not have been on TV for another year or two. I hate to give credit to Bron, but he got put in a huge position early on and did well with it. So many people got put in those positions much earlier than they would have been and absolutely smashed it. NXT needed a little bit of a rebrand. “Black and Gold” was great, but it was starting to feel a little stale and needed that fresh coat of paint. Now we are on this rebrand almost with the ‘White and Gold,’ I think it’s the perfect combination of the two…I think NXT is now the best of both worlds. I think 2023 will be NXT’s biggest yet.”
WrestleZone will have live coverage of WWE NXT New Year’s Evil beginning at 8 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday, January 10.
