AJ Styles calls Grayson Waller a seasoned veteran, catches himself on how young that sounds, and says he pushed for main roster talent to work NXT while Vince McMahon was still running the company.
Waller returned to NXT on the July 28 episode after a spell on the main roster, insulting the men’s division and putting himself into the title picture. He challenges Tony D’Angelo for the NXT Championship at Heatwave on August 30, in a fatal four-way with Cruz Montana and Zilla Fatu.
Styles was asked about the match on his podcast and named Waller as one of the reasons he rates it so highly.
“Well, I mean, the dude certainly got the look. So I’m anxious to see what he does. We know what he can do in the ring, but let’s see what he does with other NXT stars, because that’s exactly who’s in. Tony D can get after it. Cruz Montana obviously can get after it. Grayson Waller is a seasoned vet at this point in his career. I think it’s gonna be freaking good.”
The description prompted a double take from both men, given Waller is 35.
“Grayson Waller’s a seasoned vet and he’s still very young?”
Styles stood by it and explained what he meant.
“Well, he was on the indies as well, and then made his way to NXT, and then made his way to the main roster. So he’s done a couple things, and he’s a veteran of going through all that and done it a couple years. And it just so happens to be a young guy.”
Waller broke in on the Australian independent scene, signed with WWE in 2021, and had a run as one of NXT’s most prominent heels before moving to the main roster in 2023. He held the WWE Tag Team Championship with Austin Theory.
The conversation moved on to whether a wrestler going from Raw or SmackDown down to NXT still reads as a demotion, and Styles said he had been arguing against that idea for years.
“I was one of the guys that went when Vince was in control of it all. Of course, I was like, hey, we need to. I can go down there and work with some of the NXT talent, which is work. I worked with Grayson Waller and had a great match with this guy.”
He said the value runs in the other direction as well.
“But I just thought that a main roster talent able to go down and work with these guys, it just helps. I think that they have this main roster experience and they bring it down here, and this is kind of why we do what we do. And I just want to be a part of it all with helping you get to the next level.”
Styles and Waller had a singles match on the November 21, 2023 episode of NXT, which Styles won.
The crossover happens regularly now. Natalya has been working across Evolve, NXT, and the main roster, which Styles’ co-host raised as an example of a wrestler using it to refresh a character.
Styles is on the other side of it now. He retired in January, losing to Gunther at the Royal Rumble, was announced for the Hall of Fame class of 2026 in February, and has spent recent months coaching at the Performance Center while covering for a colleague recovering from knee surgery.
He also produces on NXT, and expects to be involved in the match he was being asked about.
“I know about this four-way, and I’m thinking that I’m going to have the opportunity, I think, to help produce this, so it’s kind of exciting. It’s going to be a big match. I think that you definitely got some ideas. I think it’s going to be really good, because you got some great talent in there.”
The four-way came about after Zilla Fatu, the son of the late Umaga, interrupted a number one contender’s match between Waller and Montana on the August 11 NXT and attacked both men, leaving the match a no-contest and D’Angelo without an opponent. On the August 18 show, NXT General Manager Robert Stone made it a triple threat rather than restaging the contender’s match. Fatu was added later the same night, after signing a contract that stipulated his first NXT match would be a title match.
It is the third first-time NXT appearance in the match. Montana arrived on July 2,1 and Waller returned on July 28, both within five weeks of the show.
Heatwave airs live on Sunday, August 30 at 3 p.m. Eastern on the CW Network and the ESPN App in the United States, and on Netflix internationally. Also on the card are Kendal Grey defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Kelani Jordan, Zaria and Wren Sinclair unifying the NXT Women’s North American and WWE Women’s Speed Championships, and Myles Borne defending the North American Championship against Jackson Drake.
