Dezeraux Hopes

Grayson Waller says CM Punk, AJ Styles, and Shawn Michaels are shaping the future of the industry. “AJ is a big one, especially since he’s been coming down to NXT recently and producing and working in the ring with guys, and he’s really, really fun to work with because I’m an AJ Styles fan. But he lets you go and lets you do you, and just makes everything better. He doesn’t force you to do things. ‘Hey, you need to do this.’ He’s just like, ‘What do you want to do?’ All right, ‘What if we do that?’ You’re like, oh, that’s the best idea. So I wish I got to get in the ring more with him. I only had a few chances, but even him now coming down NXT and helping out. When I finished the match with EK Prosper the other week, I came back through the curtain and the three guys standing at the curtain were Shawn, AJ, CM Punk. That’s three generations of guys who know how much they care about the business and how much they want to give back by the way they were when EK came through. This is a young kid who just in 24 hours’ notice got put in the biggest match of his life, and he got beat. But seeing the look on their face when he came back through tells me everything I need to know about the future of the industry because those three guys are shaping it.” (@ChrisVanVliet)