Grayson Waller returns to NXT, criticizes roster and calls for championship shot

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Like pretty much every other worked-shoot promo that’s come in its wake, Grayson Waller’s “unapproved” speech on NXT last night (July 28) didn’t feel nearly as real as CM Punk’s iconic 2011 Pipe Bomb on Raw. But Waller is always strong on the microphone, and was so while railing against the past two years of his career. The promo, which is receiving a lot of praise today, also tapped into the current frustration with Raw’s Vision stable. That was mostly by targeting Waller’s former tag partner Austin Theory as someone who WWE keeps giving chances to instead of someone with a track record of getting things like he does, calling Theory a “Marty Jannetty” who’s “still allergic to the microphone”. It put the Australian’s new, rougher-edged straight-shooter character into the floundering NXT men’s title scene along with the recently signed and re-dubbed Cruz Montana. Among those praising the Grayson was the original Pipe Bomb-er himself. Via Punk’s beloved Instagram Stories, Punk posted a clip of the “funeral for my career” portion of Waller’s promo (where Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods catch a stray… understandably given the 36-year-old Waller’s booking last year), with a caption across it: Frustration distilled and funneled into a bullet aimed at the competition We’ve seen WrestleMania main event-types like Punk shouting out NXT work before… John Cena’s love of Mason Rook comes to mind. Will hype from the Best in the World make a difference for Waller’s latest reboot? Will that bullet find its mark? This is the more focused version of Waller’s heel character that some have been asking for. Seems like a good shot to take. But if this doesn’t lead to a solo main roster run at some point, will this still be considered a success? Weigh in below, or share a more detailed take in The Feed!

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We haven’t seen Grayson Waller on WWE television for a while, at least since The New Day departed the company and he was left without any creative direction on main roster television. So they went back to the well by sending him to this week’s episode of NXT television and giving him a live microphone to take some shots at everyone, from Austin Theory, to New Day, to even himself. 'That Marty Jannetty is still alergic to the microphone." Shots fired by @GraysonWWE 😲 pic.twitter.com/TbCjRpSyFE — WWE (@WWE) July 29, 2026 Waller then made clear he wants to finally do what he couldn’t when he was in NXT the first time — win the NXT championship. He called out Cruz Montana for having a bad name, then went after current Champion Tony D’Angelo by calling his new baby ugly and then disrespected the entirety of the male roster, calling them lazy, complacent, and happy to be here. The women are running laps around them, he said. They also did the bit where they claimed Shawn Michaels wanted to cut him off. Instead, he just went off on the roster even more. Finally, the mic was cut and he told the camera “consider your cages rattled.” Are you buying the reinvention of Grayson Waller?