Grayson Waller Credits AEW Name For Giving Him Confidence

WWE

Grayson Waller has credited a current AEW name for a vital piece of advice which continues to shape his confidence to this day.

In a chat with The Ringer podcast, Grayson Waller described how having a working knowledge of professional wrestling came in pretty handy around the Performance Center.

Waller said of getting some formative advice from a current AEW name:

“Coming to NXT, I put as much effort in what I do and say as I do the wrestling part. That’s what people don’t understand.

“They think it comes natural, which it does, I’m not going to say that I don’t have some advantages, but I put a lot of work into this. I watch other people go about this. I watch a lot of videos of people who are confident.

“One of the best pieces of advice I got was from Nigel McGuinness when he did commentary on 205. I was doing 205, and no one cared who I was. I was a legit no one.

“Nigel pulled me aside and talked to me about Muhammad Ali. He said, ‘When Ali talks and fights, he knows he’s the best in the world, and it doesn’t matter who it is against. You don’t.’

“That piece of advice stuck with me. ‘He’s right.’ There is part of me thinking I need to learn more, I need to improve more, I need to be coached more, all these things, but it was coming out in my performance. The moment Nigel said that, and I had full confidence in myself to perform, everything went to a different level.”

Waller went on to describe that there weren’t many in the locker room who understood what it meant to have Nigel McGuinness on commentary for their matches.

Waller said:

“NXT, no one knew who Nigel was. There were two people: myself and Andre Chase.

“Nigel would sit backstage at NXT shows, and no one would go talk to him. Me and Andre Chase would go sit with him and pester him because we know Nigel.

“We know how good Nigel is. They thought he was a commentator. These dumb shotputters from Arizona State or whatever had no idea.

“Me and Andre, we basically got a seminar whenever we wanted. It was great having him around. He always had real advice.

“He wouldn’t mess around, he’s not faking me out, ‘Good job, buddy.’ He’s going to tell me how it is, that’s what I always enjoy.”

Grayson Waller continues to feature in high profile segments on WWE SmackDown since his main roster call up, including recently verbally mixing it up with John Cena.

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Transcription via Fightful

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• Grayson Waller
• nigel mcguinness
• AEW
• wwe

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