WWE SmackDown Star Wanted Top Match With Hall Of Famer

WWE

A recently drafted member of the WWE SmackDown roster wanted a match with a Hall of Famer during his time in NXT.

Called up to the main roster during the 2023 WWE Draft, Grayson Waller had made a name for himself in NXT, including setting his sights on WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.

Although the pair had come face-to-face over the past months, the feud wouldn’t culminate in a match between the legend and the upstart.

As Fox Sports Australia notes, however, the on-screen appearance of the Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative in the storyline, however, showed how highly WWE higher ups rate Waller.

Speaking of the feud, Waller said:

“No one in recent years can say that they were in the ring with Shawn Michaels. Even though it wasn’t in a wrestling capacity, like I wanted, like, that’s one of the greatest of all time and I was in there. And that doesn’t happen. So that was very big for me.

“But also, WrestleMania weekend in the Staples Center – that’s Kobe Bryant’s house. That was wild for me.

“And I took umbrage with the fact that I wasn’t the main event. I was upset about it. And I went out there to, to prove people wrong, I wanted to go out there and go, ‘I’m the best in NXT, hands down’.”

Michaels would bring Johnny Gargano back to NXT to face Grayson Waller at Stand And Deliver on April 1 2023, reigniting a feud that had ended with Waller taking Gargano out in December 2021.

Waller would reflect on the unsanctioned match which saw him lose to Gargano via submissions, revealing:

“And I think that match against Johnny, it sucked. It hurt a lot. I was in a lot of pain for a lot of days.

“But people left that NXT show talking about Grayson Waller, people left WrestleMania weekend talking about Grayson Waller.

“And when you look at how talented the NXT roster is, and how many good people there are, I took a lot of a lot of pride out of people talking about me.”

Waller was one of a number of NXT stars to receive call ups, with Shawn Michaels praising the stars on night one and night two who were called to WWE Raw and SmackDown.

Here’s a rundown of what happened on the May 9 episode of NXT:

Tiffany Stratton def. Gigi Dolin in the NXT Women’s Championship tournament

Mark Coffey & Wolfgang def. The Dyad to retain the NXT Tag Team Championship after distractions on the outside including a brawl between Ava and Ivy Nile

Duke Hudson def. Javier Bernal

Eddy Thorpe def. Damon Kemp

Ilja Dragunov def. Dijak via DQ when Dijak attacked Dragunov with a steel chair and continued the attack post-match

Charlie Dempsey w/Drew Gulak def. Tyler Bate w/Wes Lee after Joe Gacy came out and punched Bate

Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen def. Hank Walker & Tank Ledger

Lyra Valkyria def. Kiana James in the NXT Women’s Championship tournament

Bron Breakker def. Trick Williams, then continued to attack Williams post-match before Carmelo Hayes tried to make the save, but Breakker laid him out as well

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• Grayson Waller
• shawn michaels
• nxt
• wwe

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