4 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (20 Dec - Results & Review)
2. Please Ditch The Grayson Waller Effect
WrestleMania 40's title win aside, 2024 has been stinking for A-Town Down Under. Creative dropped Austin Theory splitting away from Grayson Waller cold after weeks/months of teasing it, and both lads have been stranded in WWE purgatory ever since. Now, they're reduced to whatever the hell this was supposed to be. Braun Strowman dressed as Santa Claus on the Grayson Waller Effect? Come on.
Behave yourselves.
The second half of the year has been so poor for Grayson and Austin that it's slightly surprising they haven't wound up on lists looking at the biggest losers of 2024. That sucks, because both guys are talented. Unfortunately, Waller's talk show segment is totally rudderless at the moment, and his nothing skit with Braun proved it. This was a time killing exercise and little more.
Grayson is at his best when he's aggravating everyone around him by thinking he's better than he actually is. That could be ideal heel foil for a Theory babyface turn, but WWE's writers just don't seem interested in pulling the trigger on it. Thus, there's next to no steam behind either member of A-Town Down Under. They barely even wrestle as a proper tag-team at the moment.
One can see Waller or Theory jumping to Raw in the "Transfer Window" without much incident. If creative quietly shelves the team without having them feud, then they've wasted their own time. This was genuinely one of the poorest and most inconsequential talk show segments in recent memory.
It made even the worst Miz TV bits look like Piper's Pit.