Grayson Waller is both an inspiration, and a warning.
And he has to be both, because Australian wrestling is nothing if not complicated.
An inspiration, because he did what few in the local scene have been able to do – get signed by one of the big boys in the United States, in his case WWE, and turn a hobby into a career.
A warning, because the fact is, his story is rare.
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Waller heads into Saturday’s Elimination Chamber extravaganza in Perth as one of the biggest stars on the show, primarily thanks to his passport. While he’s both from Sydney and an obnoxious bad guy on TV, he has been wildly cheered as a conquering hero wherever he’s gone since returning home for the Optus Stadium event.
Back in the States, he has managed to work his way into a solid position on the WWE main roster using his gift of the gab and athleticism – it makes all the sense in the world for him to have a 10 to 15-year career with the company, because they’ll always need to fill that loudmouthed bad guy archetype.
Maybe he doesn’t get to the level of compatriot Rhea Ripley, genuinely one of the biggest stars in wrestling right now, but even doing what Waller has already done in a few short years is uber-impressive when you consider the track record of Aussies across the Pacific.
Because that track record barely exists. Our nation’s grapplers have had their moments – a WrestleMania women’s tag title win for the IIconics here, an MCG Cruiserweight title triumph for Buddy Murphy there – but those were fleeting glimpses of glory, quickly washed away with the realisation they were celebratory moments, not signs of change to come.
And even getting to that level, where Aussies could have brief successes, was a big deal for so long.
For years the territory was a dead zone; from the mid-2000s, WWE would pop over once a year for a series of house shows but the independent scene wasn’t sending anyone to the big time, and was barely making a splash.
A guy like Waller, who grew up in the 90s and became aware of wrestling roughly at the quasi-sport’s peak in the Attitude Era, wouldn’t have even had the realisation he could see it locally too.
“I was always just watching WWE,” he told Foxsports.com.au.
“Eventually I got into independent American wrestling. But I think the first thing I saw Aussies when I started going to things like World Series Wrestling (an Aussie promotion which holds infrequent tours based around top unsigned American talents plus locals), and I realised oh, there’s Australian wrestling, what is this?
“And when I started training, I just sought out, what was the best? I went to a PWA show in Sydney which is, in my opinion, the best company in the country. Madison Eagles, the best women’s wrestler of all time. You got Robbie Eagles, one of the best Australian wrestlers of all time.
“So I did my research to make sure if I was going to train, because I want to do this properly, I went to the best place – so it kind of boggles my mind that I didn’t watch more Australian wrestling. I just didn’t know it existed, which I think is the same with a lot of people, our frustration as Australian wrestlers is that people don’t know what we’re doing and how good we are.”
That first show was May 21, 2017, in front of 150-odd fans at the Rooty Hill RSL. On it ‘Matty Wahlberg’ wrestled Caveman Ugg, a veteran of the scene.
“It was the best day of my life. You always dream, even if you’re not wrestling, you’re going, imagine if I got to do it one day?” he explained.
“I think it was just like a habit that formed immediately that day; all of a sudden everything else in my life, everything was devoted to it.”
His profile was assisted by a brief stint on Australian Survivor, where Waller brought out portions of the heel persona you’ll see on WWE television today, but it was his talent that quickly earned him a contract; yet it almost all came crashing down.
Waller’s rise in the late 2010s mirrored that of Australian independent wrestling more broadly. The scene was red-hot, with future WWE signees Jonah Rock (Bronson Reed), Elliot Sexton (Duke Hudson), Indi Hartwell, Steph De Lander (Persia Pirotta) all around, plus Sydney-based Robbie Eagles making an immediate impact in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
But the rest of the world was paying attention too. Waller’s PWA and other promotions like Melbourne City Wrestling were drawing viewers from around the planet via streaming; global superstars like Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay and Tetsuya Naito all wrestled locals on trips south.
Then came 2020; empty-arena shows from bigger promotions who could afford to run them aside, wrestling shut down through Covid just like everything else. In the same year, Speaking Out emerged – a reckoning for years of sexual abuse as accusations were finally made public against wrestlers from across the planet. Australia was no exception with a number of stalwarts withdrawing from the scene.
By the time Aussie wrestling slowly returned to normality, things were different. All of the momentum had been lost, and for many breakout stars, it cost them their jobs. Two obvious examples are Slex and Adam Brooks, a pair of Melburnians who signed with top US independent Ring of Honor… just in time for the company to go on pause, and then change owners.
Waller was fortunate. He quietly signed a WWE deal in October 2019, but yet to make the move to Orlando where the developmental NXT brand is based, had to spend a painful year-plus just waiting, not knowing whether his dream would become reality.
“Obviously with Covid and everything happening, and even before that, I didn’t want to accept that it was gonna happen in case it got taken away. It was tough because obviously, no-one knew what was going on with the pandemic. Every month they go hey, you know it’s next month, next month, next month,” he said.
“I couldn’t do anything with my life for about a year; I couldn’t move out of my house. I was living at home as an almost 30 year old, it was kind of embarrassing. But I was just waiting to get over there, and I told a few close people, and obviously told people that PWA so they knew that my story there was going to finish up – oh, story finishing, Cody Rhodes, what a flop, can’t believe I said that.
“But I kinda kept it to myself and my last PWA show in 2021, I actually had a Rumble the day before (I flew to the US). Went one to the end, nearly won, what a performance, 60 minutes the day before you leave. But I did the speech after, kind of telling people without telling people, and I think people were a lot of people were shocked – even the wrestlers because I did keep it kind of close to my heart.”
He continued: “I think Australian wrestling before the pandemic was on absolute fire. You want to talk about any other indy scene; at that time Australian wrestling was the thing. And it’s kind of unfortunate to look back on because I think a lot of those guys who are, if they got a chance in NXT tomorrow, they’d be on TV. They might be a champion in six months.
“I know how good those guys are Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, all across the country. There’s good people. And unfortunately I think a lot of people just miss the opportunity, which is super frustrating. So I take it as, part of my job now is to open that door again, and start getting more Australians in, because I know once we get in we compete.”
And, as much as it pained him to shower praise on others, Waller called for some of his compatriots to be given a chance.
“Robbie Eagles, he’s in New Japan obviously, but he was my coach day one. He’s one of my favourite wrestlers. Adam Brooks should be signed somewhere. He should be somewhere, Slex should be somewhere,” he said.
“Even like a lot of the guys I trained with at PWA, especially ones I’m close to, The Velocities. Jimmy Townsend. The Tuckman, and Scott Green, Will Kiedis, these young guys. I talk to them constantly, I know much they want it, I know how hard they’re working. They’re up at 6am while on holiday basically to go to the gym with me. So I think it’s just gonna be a matter of time before they start disappearing (from the Aussie scene).”
And while it’s not easy, Waller is living proof you can hit the big time.
He has shared the WWE ring with greats like John Cena, been shouted out by The Rock, and will square off with Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes on his own talk show – The Grayson Waller Effect – in front of over 40,000 screaming Aussies at Optus Stadium.
“I was with my family yesterday,” he said, “and my aunty said to me, like, I just want to apologise for making fun of you as a kid for watching wrestling – because now you’ve actually done something with it.”
Max Laughton is in Perth for Elimination Chamber with thanks to WWE.
