October 14, 2025 • 14 mins
Grayson Waller opens up about that viral meet & greet moment, keeping his character real, the line between good and bad heat, being compared to Logan Paul, and what it’s like working with Cena and Edge.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You'll please for all these pros.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Wound pot stop seeing.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
What's up you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome back into Iheartrady's official wrestling podcast, The Battleground Podcast.
What is going on in his battle alongside my tag
team partner Eli, and of course WWE is rolling in town,
the Cincinnati and the Sacramento.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Of course, you can grab your tickets.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Online now WWE dot com or ticketmaster dot com. Today
on the show, a man who everybody knows, a man
who everybody loves to hate except for us.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
We don't hate him on the show. We love him
on the show. Grayson Waller Joyce, who wow, It's.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's a real pleasure to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
You both of you couldn't look more like wrestling fans
if you tried. You look like every bloke in the
front row of the shows. So this is this feels
normal for me.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, Hey, you know what, we got to be a
mark on the show for sure, because we're we're fans,
are pro wrestling.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
That's why we do the show.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
But I want to say, I know, brother, you didn't
have to tell me I can tell.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Hey, you know what, we We actually had one of
your friends on earlier that you have a little bit
of beef.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
With Penta came on. He's he had some not so
nice things to say about you. But we all save
that for another day.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I want I want to go back for a quick
second a viral moment on social media that.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Involved you, Uh, You're at a meet and greet with
those two kids.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And you say something. Next thing you know, they start
just slapping each other. What's going through your head in
that moment?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We know that was for We did a bit of
media at a at a.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Tryout, so you know, obviously you know you got Shawn
Michael's rear, riply, Chelsea Graham've got a good little squad there,
and these poor kids, you know they love wrestling, but
you know, sitting through an our Q and A with
all of us, you know, for five six year old kids,
you know, they've got a lot of energy. So I
was just trying to have a little bit of fun,
you know, on to fight and I forget you know,
(02:02):
five and six year olds are pretty susceptible to anything
you say in doing it immediately, so I thought it
was a good scrap the lad on the left.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
You know, he could probably work on like on his
left hand.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
It probably wasn't where it needed to be, but you know,
they've they've got time to kind of improve a little bit.
It reminded me of being an NXT. You know, there
was a little bit green. But if they work.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
On their some of their strikes, they could be big
things one day.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I remember watching the video and just everybody's reaction around
and you're just like, fight, fight, fight, fight fight.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And it was good too, you know, I was. I
was impressed these boys had some energy.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I didn't think they were going to go probably take
it as far as they did, but uh, what can
you do.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
They're not my kids.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I am stressed.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Right there, you go, there you go. You know, Fancy,
you're one of the easiest guys to dislike in WW
which is honestly a huge compliment. You know, in your
line of work, do you ever do you ever think
about where the line is between good heat and go
away heat or as any reaction to win for you?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I wouldn't sound necessarily think about it, but I do
think you do, see now, especially because I think wrestling
has become everything I think you watch almost any sport,
and I think like influencer boxing is a great example
of what I would say is bad heat.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
You know, every influencer boxing.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
If you ever see those social media guys, they say
things way too far. They're always pretending to fight each other,
Like you can just feel how faked is the whole time.
With me, I'm just being realistic when I say these
things about people. When I say things about Pentre or
people in the crowd, like I mean it, it's just
me being allowed to say whatever I want, which is fun.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I do think.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
There is definitely a line where it goes from entertaining
to something different.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And with the WWE, that's not something that we do.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But I see a lot of people try and mimic
what we do in other arenas, other sports, and they.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Can't do what we do.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
We're very good at what we do of like making sure,
you know, at the end of the day, we've got
families coming to the show, so we're got to make
sure we're having fun with it and the fans are
having fun. Well, I don't really care if the fans
are having fun, but my boss is going to be
upset if they're not. So you know, you kind of
got to think about those things.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Right, absolutely for sure. You know a lot of people
like to compare you to Logan Paul on social media. Confident, cocky,
but you know also someone who can deliver when the
bell rings. Do you take that as as flattery or
do you feel like it downplays what makes you different.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
I would never say that if you're compared to Logan Paul.
I don't think that is a negative at all. Obviously,
everything Logan's done instid a short amount of time is
very impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Look at everything he does outside of the w WE.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Look at the eyes that he brings to w WE,
and I'm someone when I was in NXT, I actually
got to get in and train with him.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
He wanted to train with Sewn Michaels.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Sean didn't know if Logan knew that he doesn't bump
around anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So that was my job to come in and kind
of help Logan out.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But I could tell that day like he genuinely cares
about what we do and he's very passionate. And when
you're coming in as a celebrity, I think that's that's
the line that we draw in the locker room, like
Do you actually care about this? Do you actually want
to do it? Are you trying to get a payday?
Trying to get eyes on you? He trying to just
like take from us. But Logan's not that guy. He
genuinely cares and he's very good at it. And I
think that upsets a lot of people. So if I
(05:03):
get compared to him, I'm not stressing. But I also
do think I set myself apart from Logan in a
lot of ways.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You know, I'm there every week.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
You need me in NXT, you need me to do
Triple A, you need me to do any media interviews.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Grayson wall is doing it all. You know.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Logan's an in and out kind of guy, but that's
just because he has so much more going on in
his life outside of the w WE. For me, WA
is everything to me means a lot to me. So
I think that's where we differ.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah. Absolutely, And you mentioned when it comes to celebrities.
You see the time and effort that Logan's put on.
You see somebody like a bad bunny who's came in
and put.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Time and effort.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You go back to like when we were kids watching wrestling,
they would bring in celebrities like Snooky came in and
took like maybe a bump here or there, but nothing crazy.
But it really goes to show that when these celebrities
are coming in, they're putting work in.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
They're not just coming to take a payday and just stand.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
There like.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah. And I'll say I think Logan Pole ruined celebrity
wrestling because he was so good at it and put
in so much effort that any celebrity coming in after
we compare them to.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So, you know, we had certain people who it's more
with the NIL program.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
You know, you get these some of these college athletes
who are social media celebrities. They want to come in,
they want to go straight to the main roster. They
want to straight away do big matches at WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You have to understand Logan did that because he's a
special breed.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
He's a special athlete.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Everything I've heard about Jelly Roll from the NXT guys
who worked with him, he was there every day, he
was there for hours.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
He was doing everything that we do.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So if someone's willing to put themselves through where we
went through, I've got no problem them being in the business.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
But if they just want to come.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
In and get a cheap payday, like they're going to
disappear real quick.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, good answer, Yeah, very good answer. You know, Australian
wrestlers are kind of having a moment in the sun
right now. There's a lot of a lot of you know,
Ray Ripley, Bronson, Reed, yourself, Peyton Royce and Billy Kay
from TNA still killing it over there.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You know, what's it like?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I'm seeing you know, so many of your fellow countrymen
in such a you know, big stages now in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It makes me really happy because when I started training
in Australia, I knew from the start that the talent
was there, and the talent's been there for a long time.
But I think Australia is very like untapped when it
comes to like the American Indies, everyone is signed. The
UK Indies kind of got guarded a few years ago
and they're slowly coming back. But like I think Australia
is the region where there's so much talent, and because
(07:29):
we're so far away and it's hard to kind of
get your eyes on it, these people just sit there
just waiting for their chance. So someone like Zaria who
gets picked up by NXT straight away.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
She's an absolute killer down there.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
She's crushing it, and I think that's going to happen
more and more as like, you know, I think Sean
and XT know, hey, if we want someone good, we
go to Australia and there's ten or fifteen guys and
girls sitting there who can be on TV in two weeks.
So I think it's something that's been a long time
coming and I'm proud that it's finally happening.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, Yeah, for sure, something really cool as wrestling fans
that we've seen involving you. You've had moments with legends
like Sina and Edge and a handful of others, which
one of those stills feel surreal when you look back
from it. And how do you keep yourself from, you know,
fanboying in real time?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah? For me, I ended in my fan card the
day I walked in the NXT doors.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
You know, I saw it as a respect thing is
that I don't want to get it in there and
be like, oh my god, I can't believe I'm here
with you, because I don't think I would be myself
in the ring when that happens. You know, I don't
want to be the guy chasing photos backstage and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I don't think that allows you to be your best.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
So for me personally, the way I show respect to
these legends is I want to get that photo in
the ring with me slapping you in the face.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I think that's the best way to get a photos.
That's what I have on my wall.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
But especially for me like getting to being in there
with seen her a couple of times, especially now that
he's last year, and you kind of look back at
everything he's done and what he means to wrestling, what
he means to a lot of the guys who are.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
In the locker room now who grew up watching him
like it's it's kind of surreal.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
And I think it's times like these that I look
back on events like that in in the O two
arena with Sena and go, wow, that was really cool.
But at the time, for me, it's just work. I'm
getting in there. I want to show myself off. I
want to show that I'm on your level type of thing.
So I think it's a situation where you look back
and you're kind of like, that was a cool moment.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, another cool moment you're talking about. You want that
picture of you slapping them in the ring? Do you
have it framed somewhere in your house of you, you know,
kind of pulling your handback on Triple H when presenting
that Tag team title on you.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I've got the Tag Team Championship up, but that kind
of you know, represents that time. But that's something that
you know, every time I see someone win a championship,
there's the Triple H point And for those people, that's
a very cool time. You know, Triple H is pointing
at me. But for me, I'm like, this is my time.
I just want the Tag Team Championships. Like, I don't
(09:45):
want the point. I want I want the photo.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
To be me and for me.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
In theory, you know, we're kind of we like to
have some fun, we like to joke around, and we
saw it as an opportunity to take that moment back
and be like, hey, just so you know, we're doing
this our way.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
This is about us, this isn't about you. You're not
going to steal our spotlight. So we took a risk.
We took a risk with that, but that's what we
gotta do in this business sometimes.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Right now, pulling the curtain back a little bit, because
we've all watched the Netflix documentary Unreal. Did he say
anything to you once you got back to Gorilla after
that moment happened?
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Or was there like the silent treatment where you just
kind of went your own ways.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I'm sure were there Netflix cameras for that. They weren't.
Oh no, oh, So.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
That means you guys aren't going to know what happened,
you know, that's part of the time. I'm one of
the guys who I'm not a big fan of Unreal.
I understand it's a really entertaining show, and a lot
of my mates have watched and say they love it.
But for me, I love the mystery, you know, I
don't like the magician's secrets to be revealed. But I
think in wrestling there's a certain situation with disrespect. You know,
when you do it on camera, it's different of doing
(10:47):
it behind the scenes. When you doing it on camera,
it's for a show. You know, we're doing it for
a reason. If I did a backstage that's a whole
different situation.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
That's when I'm taking a pedigree, probably on the concrete,
a little bit of mystery about that, but you know
we had some fun with it.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
You know, you've done a lot of moving within ww NXT,
SmackDown Raw, is there was there one thing about, you know,
the main roster grind that maybe caught you off guard
or maybe you weren't expecting once you moved up.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Dude, the travel sucks. The travelers is horrendous.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
You know, you got lots of flight delays, like you're
leaving early, you know after TV. You might have a
fifteen minute match on Monday Night Raw and then you've
got a six am flight home, so your body saw.
So I think it's the traveler is the one that
that's the real wake up, and I think that's what
the grind is. The wrestling is the fun part being
on Raw, being on SmackDown, getting to wrestle, like that's
that's the fun.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I get paid for the travel because the traveler is
the tough.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Spot, especially when we're doing West Coast and then we're
doing Red Eyes.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Like I think that's the thing people don't see. You know,
people see the.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Glamour, the glitz, the show that we do, but they
don't see everything that goes into it beforehand. Just to
get us all there at the right time. So the
travel is the one that really wake me out.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Now, I know our time is coming to an end
here shortly with chatting with you today.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
We always like to have a little fun towards the
end of the interviews.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
If we were to scroll through Grayson Waller's playlist, is
there a certain song that if we see on there,
we're like, huh, We're surprised.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
We didn't think Grayson listens to this. What is that
song on your playlist?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Man?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I do have a very eclectic taste in music, you know,
I got my gym music.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know, if I'm running, I got a little bit different.
But I will admit I am a bit of a
musical fan. I do.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I do enjoy musicals here and there, A little bit
of the music, a little bit of Hamilton every now
and again jumps in there.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I'm trying.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
The Greatest Showman is also a bit of a bang,
you know, Hugh Jackman. Yeah, fellows trying so I can
get away with that. So every now and again it
filters into the podcast very rarely, though, very rarely, very.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Rarely, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, I know our time is limited here with you Grayson,
last question I have for you. I got a friend
of mine who is in Philly. He's a big Eagles fan.
Are you He wants to know, are you a real
Eagles fan or were you just playing to the crowd. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
See, it's very disrespectful when people call out my Eagles fandom.
You know, I was playing Madden with Donovan McNabb when
I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
That kind of jumped me into the Eagles fandom. Unlike
Cody Roadse who decided to go for the Eagles two
years ago, fancy that when they start winning.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
I'm a real Eagles fan, you know, and so I'm
very much enjoying it right now. I know we're going
to Cincinnati soon. They've got Jake Browning at quarterbacks, so
they're probably in a miserable mood. So they probably need
a little bit more of entertainment, a little bit enjoyment.
That's what WWE presents us, well, Grayson Waller presents. We
go to these places, you know, have these terrible teams
who are really struggling, and we go and we put
on a show. We entertain the fans because the quarterbacks
(13:37):
of their team can't do that.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That's the kind of people we are, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, Grayson, it's an honor and a privilege to have
here on the show. Last thing before we let you go,
anything you want to say to the fans that are
watching or listening to this right now.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
You know a lot of people have a lot of
mean things to say about Grayson Waller, especially on social media,
but here's your opportunity to say it in person. You know,
coming up, we got smacked down at the Frost Bank
Center in Cincinnati. We got raw going a Sacramento, which
is always one of our favorite places to go. So
if you want to say those mean things say to
me in person, you can get a ticket in the
front row.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You can say whatever you want and I'm happy to listen.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Now I'm going to be happy to talk back to you, so,
you know, stop hiding behind your screens and come have
some fun with us in person
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You'll please for all these pros.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Wound pot stop seeing.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
What's up you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome back into Iheartrady's official wrestling podcast, The Battleground Podcast.
What is going on in his battle alongside my tag
team partner Eli, and of course WWE is rolling in town,
the Cincinnati and the Sacramento.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Of course, you can grab your tickets.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Online now WWE dot com or ticketmaster dot com. Today
on the show, a man who everybody knows, a man
who everybody loves to hate except for us.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
We don't hate him on the show. We love him
on the show. Grayson Waller Joyce, who wow, It's.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's a real pleasure to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
You both of you couldn't look more like wrestling fans
if you tried. You look like every bloke in the
front row of the shows. So this is this feels
normal for me.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, Hey, you know what, we got to be a
mark on the show for sure, because we're we're fans,
are pro wrestling.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
That's why we do the show.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
But I want to say, I know, brother, you didn't
have to tell me I can tell.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Hey, you know what, we We actually had one of
your friends on earlier that you have a little bit
of beef.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
With Penta came on. He's he had some not so
nice things to say about you. But we all save
that for another day.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I want I want to go back for a quick
second a viral moment on social media that.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Involved you, Uh, You're at a meet and greet with
those two kids.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And you say something. Next thing you know, they start
just slapping each other. What's going through your head in
that moment?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We know that was for We did a bit of
media at a at a.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Tryout, so you know, obviously you know you got Shawn
Michael's rear, riply, Chelsea Graham've got a good little squad there,
and these poor kids, you know they love wrestling, but
you know, sitting through an our Q and A with
all of us, you know, for five six year old kids,
you know, they've got a lot of energy. So I
was just trying to have a little bit of fun,
you know, on to fight and I forget you know,
(02:02):
five and six year olds are pretty susceptible to anything
you say in doing it immediately, so I thought it
was a good scrap the lad on the left.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
You know, he could probably work on like on his
left hand.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
It probably wasn't where it needed to be, but you know,
they've they've got time to kind of improve a little bit.
It reminded me of being an NXT. You know, there
was a little bit green. But if they work.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
On their some of their strikes, they could be big
things one day.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I remember watching the video and just everybody's reaction around
and you're just like, fight, fight, fight, fight fight.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And it was good too, you know, I was. I
was impressed these boys had some energy.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I didn't think they were going to go probably take
it as far as they did, but uh, what can
you do.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
They're not my kids.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I am stressed.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Right there, you go, there you go. You know, Fancy,
you're one of the easiest guys to dislike in WW
which is honestly a huge compliment. You know, in your
line of work, do you ever do you ever think
about where the line is between good heat and go
away heat or as any reaction to win for you?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I wouldn't sound necessarily think about it, but I do
think you do, see now, especially because I think wrestling
has become everything I think you watch almost any sport,
and I think like influencer boxing is a great example
of what I would say is bad heat.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
You know, every influencer boxing.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
If you ever see those social media guys, they say
things way too far. They're always pretending to fight each other,
Like you can just feel how faked is the whole time.
With me, I'm just being realistic when I say these
things about people. When I say things about Pentre or
people in the crowd, like I mean it, it's just
me being allowed to say whatever I want, which is fun.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I do think.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
There is definitely a line where it goes from entertaining
to something different.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And with the WWE, that's not something that we do.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But I see a lot of people try and mimic
what we do in other arenas, other sports, and they.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Can't do what we do.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
We're very good at what we do of like making sure,
you know, at the end of the day, we've got
families coming to the show, so we're got to make
sure we're having fun with it and the fans are
having fun. Well, I don't really care if the fans
are having fun, but my boss is going to be
upset if they're not. So you know, you kind of
got to think about those things.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Right, absolutely for sure. You know a lot of people
like to compare you to Logan Paul on social media. Confident, cocky,
but you know also someone who can deliver when the
bell rings. Do you take that as as flattery or
do you feel like it downplays what makes you different.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
I would never say that if you're compared to Logan Paul.
I don't think that is a negative at all. Obviously,
everything Logan's done instid a short amount of time is
very impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Look at everything he does outside of the w WE.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Look at the eyes that he brings to w WE,
and I'm someone when I was in NXT, I actually
got to get in and train with him.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
He wanted to train with Sewn Michaels.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Sean didn't know if Logan knew that he doesn't bump
around anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So that was my job to come in and kind
of help Logan out.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But I could tell that day like he genuinely cares
about what we do and he's very passionate. And when
you're coming in as a celebrity, I think that's that's
the line that we draw in the locker room, like
Do you actually care about this? Do you actually want
to do it? Are you trying to get a payday?
Trying to get eyes on you? He trying to just
like take from us. But Logan's not that guy. He
genuinely cares and he's very good at it. And I
think that upsets a lot of people. So if I
(05:03):
get compared to him, I'm not stressing. But I also
do think I set myself apart from Logan in a
lot of ways.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You know, I'm there every week.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
You need me in NXT, you need me to do
Triple A, you need me to do any media interviews.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Grayson wall is doing it all. You know.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Logan's an in and out kind of guy, but that's
just because he has so much more going on in
his life outside of the w WE. For me, WA
is everything to me means a lot to me. So
I think that's where we differ.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah. Absolutely, And you mentioned when it comes to celebrities.
You see the time and effort that Logan's put on.
You see somebody like a bad bunny who's came in
and put.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Time and effort.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You go back to like when we were kids watching wrestling,
they would bring in celebrities like Snooky came in and
took like maybe a bump here or there, but nothing crazy.
But it really goes to show that when these celebrities
are coming in, they're putting work in.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
They're not just coming to take a payday and just stand.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
There like.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah. And I'll say I think Logan Pole ruined celebrity
wrestling because he was so good at it and put
in so much effort that any celebrity coming in after
we compare them to.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So, you know, we had certain people who it's more
with the NIL program.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
You know, you get these some of these college athletes
who are social media celebrities. They want to come in,
they want to go straight to the main roster. They
want to straight away do big matches at WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You have to understand Logan did that because he's a
special breed.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
He's a special athlete.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Everything I've heard about Jelly Roll from the NXT guys
who worked with him, he was there every day, he
was there for hours.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
He was doing everything that we do.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So if someone's willing to put themselves through where we
went through, I've got no problem them being in the business.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
But if they just want to come.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
In and get a cheap payday, like they're going to
disappear real quick.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, good answer, Yeah, very good answer. You know, Australian
wrestlers are kind of having a moment in the sun
right now. There's a lot of a lot of you know,
Ray Ripley, Bronson, Reed, yourself, Peyton Royce and Billy Kay
from TNA still killing it over there.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You know, what's it like?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I'm seeing you know, so many of your fellow countrymen
in such a you know, big stages now in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It makes me really happy because when I started training
in Australia, I knew from the start that the talent
was there, and the talent's been there for a long time.
But I think Australia is very like untapped when it
comes to like the American Indies, everyone is signed. The
UK Indies kind of got guarded a few years ago
and they're slowly coming back. But like I think Australia
is the region where there's so much talent, and because
(07:29):
we're so far away and it's hard to kind of
get your eyes on it, these people just sit there
just waiting for their chance. So someone like Zaria who
gets picked up by NXT straight away.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
She's an absolute killer down there.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
She's crushing it, and I think that's going to happen
more and more as like, you know, I think Sean
and XT know, hey, if we want someone good, we
go to Australia and there's ten or fifteen guys and
girls sitting there who can be on TV in two weeks.
So I think it's something that's been a long time
coming and I'm proud that it's finally happening.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, Yeah, for sure, something really cool as wrestling fans
that we've seen involving you. You've had moments with legends
like Sina and Edge and a handful of others, which
one of those stills feel surreal when you look back
from it. And how do you keep yourself from, you know,
fanboying in real time?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah? For me, I ended in my fan card the
day I walked in the NXT doors.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
You know, I saw it as a respect thing is
that I don't want to get it in there and
be like, oh my god, I can't believe I'm here
with you, because I don't think I would be myself
in the ring when that happens. You know, I don't
want to be the guy chasing photos backstage and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I don't think that allows you to be your best.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
So for me personally, the way I show respect to
these legends is I want to get that photo in
the ring with me slapping you in the face.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I think that's the best way to get a photos.
That's what I have on my wall.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
But especially for me like getting to being in there
with seen her a couple of times, especially now that
he's last year, and you kind of look back at
everything he's done and what he means to wrestling, what
he means to a lot of the guys who are.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
In the locker room now who grew up watching him
like it's it's kind of surreal.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
And I think it's times like these that I look
back on events like that in in the O two
arena with Sena and go, wow, that was really cool.
But at the time, for me, it's just work. I'm
getting in there. I want to show myself off. I
want to show that I'm on your level type of thing.
So I think it's a situation where you look back
and you're kind of like, that was a cool moment.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, another cool moment you're talking about. You want that
picture of you slapping them in the ring? Do you
have it framed somewhere in your house of you, you know,
kind of pulling your handback on Triple H when presenting
that Tag team title on you.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I've got the Tag Team Championship up, but that kind
of you know, represents that time. But that's something that
you know, every time I see someone win a championship,
there's the Triple H point And for those people, that's
a very cool time. You know, Triple H is pointing
at me. But for me, I'm like, this is my time.
I just want the Tag Team Championships. Like, I don't
(09:45):
want the point. I want I want the photo.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
To be me and for me.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
In theory, you know, we're kind of we like to
have some fun, we like to joke around, and we
saw it as an opportunity to take that moment back
and be like, hey, just so you know, we're doing
this our way.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
This is about us, this isn't about you. You're not
going to steal our spotlight. So we took a risk.
We took a risk with that, but that's what we
gotta do in this business sometimes.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Right now, pulling the curtain back a little bit, because
we've all watched the Netflix documentary Unreal. Did he say
anything to you once you got back to Gorilla after
that moment happened?
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Or was there like the silent treatment where you just
kind of went your own ways.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I'm sure were there Netflix cameras for that. They weren't.
Oh no, oh, So.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
That means you guys aren't going to know what happened,
you know, that's part of the time. I'm one of
the guys who I'm not a big fan of Unreal.
I understand it's a really entertaining show, and a lot
of my mates have watched and say they love it.
But for me, I love the mystery, you know, I
don't like the magician's secrets to be revealed. But I
think in wrestling there's a certain situation with disrespect. You know,
when you do it on camera, it's different of doing
(10:47):
it behind the scenes. When you doing it on camera,
it's for a show. You know, we're doing it for
a reason. If I did a backstage that's a whole
different situation.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
That's when I'm taking a pedigree, probably on the concrete,
a little bit of mystery about that, but you know
we had some fun with it.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
You know, you've done a lot of moving within ww NXT,
SmackDown Raw, is there was there one thing about, you know,
the main roster grind that maybe caught you off guard
or maybe you weren't expecting once you moved up.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Dude, the travel sucks. The travelers is horrendous.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
You know, you got lots of flight delays, like you're
leaving early, you know after TV. You might have a
fifteen minute match on Monday Night Raw and then you've
got a six am flight home, so your body saw.
So I think it's the traveler is the one that
that's the real wake up, and I think that's what
the grind is. The wrestling is the fun part being
on Raw, being on SmackDown, getting to wrestle, like that's
that's the fun.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I get paid for the travel because the traveler is
the tough.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Spot, especially when we're doing West Coast and then we're
doing Red Eyes.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Like I think that's the thing people don't see. You know,
people see the.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Glamour, the glitz, the show that we do, but they
don't see everything that goes into it beforehand. Just to
get us all there at the right time. So the
travel is the one that really wake me out.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Now, I know our time is coming to an end
here shortly with chatting with you today.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
We always like to have a little fun towards the
end of the interviews.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
If we were to scroll through Grayson Waller's playlist, is
there a certain song that if we see on there,
we're like, huh, We're surprised.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
We didn't think Grayson listens to this. What is that
song on your playlist?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Man?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I do have a very eclectic taste in music, you know,
I got my gym music.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know, if I'm running, I got a little bit different.
But I will admit I am a bit of a
musical fan. I do.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I do enjoy musicals here and there, A little bit
of the music, a little bit of Hamilton every now
and again jumps in there.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I'm trying.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
The Greatest Showman is also a bit of a bang,
you know, Hugh Jackman. Yeah, fellows trying so I can
get away with that. So every now and again it
filters into the podcast very rarely, though, very rarely, very.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Rarely, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, I know our time is limited here with you Grayson,
last question I have for you. I got a friend
of mine who is in Philly. He's a big Eagles fan.
Are you He wants to know, are you a real
Eagles fan or were you just playing to the crowd. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
See, it's very disrespectful when people call out my Eagles fandom.
You know, I was playing Madden with Donovan McNabb when
I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
That kind of jumped me into the Eagles fandom. Unlike
Cody Roadse who decided to go for the Eagles two
years ago, fancy that when they start winning.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
I'm a real Eagles fan, you know, and so I'm
very much enjoying it right now. I know we're going
to Cincinnati soon. They've got Jake Browning at quarterbacks, so
they're probably in a miserable mood. So they probably need
a little bit more of entertainment, a little bit enjoyment.
That's what WWE presents us, well, Grayson Waller presents. We
go to these places, you know, have these terrible teams
who are really struggling, and we go and we put
on a show. We entertain the fans because the quarterbacks
(13:37):
of their team can't do that.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That's the kind of people we are, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, Grayson, it's an honor and a privilege to have
here on the show. Last thing before we let you go,
anything you want to say to the fans that are
watching or listening to this right now.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
You know a lot of people have a lot of
mean things to say about Grayson Waller, especially on social media,
but here's your opportunity to say it in person. You know,
coming up, we got smacked down at the Frost Bank
Center in Cincinnati. We got raw going a Sacramento, which
is always one of our favorite places to go. So
if you want to say those mean things say to
me in person, you can get a ticket in the
front row.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You can say whatever you want and I'm happy to listen.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Now I'm going to be happy to talk back to you, so,
you know, stop hiding behind your screens and come have
some fun with us in person
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