Grayson Waller has looked back on his high-profile match against Edge and how it was the only time that he truly felt nervous before stepping into the ring.
During his final WWE appearance inside Madison Square Garden, The Rated R Superstar was a guest on The Grayson Waller Effect. With talk show segments in wrestling rarely ending peacefully, an impromptu match was later made between the Hall of Famer and the recently called-up SmackDown star.
Despite the fact that Edge was victorious that night, Waller more than held his own against the 11-time World Champion. Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Waller stated that he had only just recovered from a broken leg and found out about the match the night before:
“The weird thing is, and I’ve talked about it before, I was coming off breaking my leg against Melo. I got cleared maybe two weeks before, but we were in London for a bit, and then we did something else, I’d had maybe an hour in the ring.
So I’ve been cleared, I had one hour, and then I was going to do the talk show with Edge, and all of a sudden, I find out the night before that I’m wrestling him. That’s stressful because I don’t even know if I can wrestle, I haven’t really done anything on my leg. That’s the first time I’ve really felt the pressure and felt nervous, and usually I don’t.
But then I watched a bunch of clips of McGregor in MSG, fighting Eddie Alvarez, watched all the videos for the entrance, and just like his vibe, I watched the fight like three times, and all of a sudden I was feeling myself. And I was like, You, what are you going to do? Not do it. And then from that moment, I felt completely comfortable, and the match went great, and I came backstage and I could barely walk.
My leg wasn’t as good as it needed to be, but I got through it, and now I’m very glad that I went in with that type of energy. And like to get in there with Edge who is one of the best of all time, and to do it in that kind of venue is very cool.”
“That Was Pretty Cool”: Grayson Waller On Match Against Edge
After the match, Edge acknowledged Waller’s efforts and told the former Tag Team Champion that in the sink or swim situation, he swam. In reference to this, Waller added that he was grateful for the endorsement from the Hall of Famer:
“That’s not something he has to do. As much as I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t want to kiss ass of the legends, my way of saying thank you to them, is saying really horrible things and going at them, I want to be on your level. I feel that’s the biggest respect I can give you is coming at you like everyone else, like, I don’t want to sit back, but little things like that, at the time, it didn’t mean as much as it does now. Now I look back and go, that was pretty cool.”
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