6 Ups And 4 Downs From NXT Roadblock 2023

3. Johnny Wrestling Seeking Revenge

More than a year ago, a brash upstart Grayson Waller brutally attacked a departing NXT superstar, sending him out of the company on his back.

Tuesday night, things came full circle when Shawn Michaels announced his proxy to face Waller at NXT Stand and Deliver: Johnny Gargano. The Raw superstar made his return to NXT to finally get his revenge on Waller for attacking him in December 2021, and to take up the mantle for HBK, who apparently is not getting back in the ring to face the obnoxious Australian.

The announcement was simultaneously fantastic and a letdown: Michaels has been rumored or at least fantasy-booked for a while now to be making an in-ring return against Waller, with all the pieces falling into place. Tuesday, they pulled the rug out with a stand-in, but at least Gargano has history with Waller and the idea of him coming back to seek revenge and defend his mentor HBK makes sense on all fronts.

While this wasn’t the best news possible, it at least was logical and should make for a really good match that day.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.