Grayson Waller has revealed that he believed he was on his way out of WWE around the time Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, collectively known as New Day, announced their departure from the company at the beginning of May. Waller had been aligned with the tag team on television, though he was not featured prominently alongside them on a week-to-week basis before their exit.
According to Fightful, Waller lost to Oba Femi on the April 21 episode of WWE Raw and then disappeared from television altogether. With his New Day connection gone and no clear direction on the main roster, Waller said he genuinely feared his run with the company was coming to an end.
Instead, WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels stepped in with a different plan. Speaking on the Insight Podcast with Chris Van Vliet, Waller recalled that Michaels requested a meeting with him and pitched a return to NXT. Waller said he does not view the switch from the main roster back to the developmental brand as a demotion, even though he acknowledged it carried real risk for his career. He explained that staying visible on television, in whatever form, mattered more to him than clinging to a main roster spot where he was not being used.
Waller told Van Vliet that his outlook on NXT has changed considerably since his first stint there. Where he once was learning the fundamentals of the business, he now sees himself as a veteran presence expected to set a tone for the locker room. He said the experience of being sidelined on the main roster has fueled his determination to make WWE officials regret the way he was booked, framing his second NXT run as a chance to prove his value from the ground up again.
That renewed edge has carried over into his on-screen persona. Waller has used his platform to call out members of the current NXT roster, describing some talent as “soft, lazy and complacent” and suggesting several wrestlers are at risk of wasting their opportunities the same way he believes others have in the past. He has also leaned into his heel persona with the NXT audience directly, telling Van Vliet that mocking the crowd, whom he referred to in blunt and derisive terms, is one of his favorite parts of appearing on the brand each week.
Waller’s comments paint a picture of a performer using a period of professional uncertainty as motivation, with Michaels’ personal pitch serving as the turning point that kept him on WWE television rather than off it entirely.
