WWE Royal Rumble 2023: 10 Surprise Entrants We Could See
7. Grayson Waller
WWE - whether it's ran by Vince McMahon or Triple H - favours a certain breed of heel.
Tall, telegenic, and incredibly obnoxious, they are patterned after The Miz, who is still around in a featured position. They are smooth talkers, they are chicken sh*ts, and they are more likely to draw groans than actual heat. Drawing earnest heat is a lost and perhaps unrecoverable art, but it's better to try, surely, than to relentlessly list off one's Wikipedia page.
These exposition-happy "next big thing" types are the worst heels, so it says rather a lot of Waller's immense talent that he can pull it off.
He's effectively mastered the role on NXT. He has the perfect smug face for it, he's dynamic both in the ring and in promo segments in which he bounces off the walls, high on his own ar*ehole charisma. He doesn't bask in his greatness with a detached, methodical pose. He vibrates off it. He's a hyperactive narcissist, grating in a way that you actually want to see him lose, and his work is little like the bland, smoothed-off Austin Theory's.
Waller embodies what WWE likes, and even as a sneak preview of a performer who is guaranteed to win about 11 midcard titles, he could and should enter the Royal Rumble match.