When Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Adam Pearce, and Nick Aldis announced a 12-man tournament to decide on the six participants in the Elimination Chamber‘s namesake match, fans noticed one very interesting omission from the talent pool: Grayson Waller.

Now granted, when considering the top 12 male singles wrestlers in the WWE Universe who don't currently have a title, Waller probably isn't one of them, as he's won exactly zero matches in 2024 and only won nine out of 39 in 2023, but still, with the Elimination Chamber coming to Perth, Australia, it felt like a pretty major omission to leave the “Aussie Icon” off of the card.

Well, in a stroke of down under booking brilliance, that no longer appears to be the case, as, in the lead-up to the penultimate SmackDown before the Premium Live Event, Waller announced that he will be on the show after all, as he'll be hosting a very special episode of The Grayson Waller Effect live from his home country.

“Is anyone else as sick and tired of hearing about stories as I am? Like this one for example, imagine getting slapped by your boss in front of thousands of people, millions online, and doing nothing about it?” Grayson Waller announced on social media via F4W.

“But who am I to judge? Because right now, it's the biggest thing in entertainment and it got me thinking that since I'm basically the Prime Minster of Australia that I need to give something back to the Australian people and bring the biggest story in entertainment to my house, to Optus Stadium, to Perth, to Elimination Chamber in Australia.

“So before they have to worry about finishing stories, or worry about The Rock or The Tribal Chief – acknowledge, by the way – let's take some stress off these guys' shoulders and give them a gift, something that everyone wants but not everyone gets, the Grayson Waller rub. So Australia, get ready for the biggest Grayson Waller Effect in history with my guests, the World Heavyweight Champion Seth ‘Freakin' Rollins, and the winner of the 2024 Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes. ”

Now, for fans in the know, this isn't the first time Waller has appeared on a PLE without an official match on the books, as he famously took part in an expansive segment with John Cena at Money in the Bank in the United Kingdom last July, and helped to announce the return of Jey Uso after a brief exit with Cody Rhodes at Payback. While neither of those segments ended up being particularly physical, with Rollins and Rhodes booked as the show's guests, who knows, maybe a few members of The Bloodline will make their way down to Australia and film a sequel to “The Slap” made famous at the WrestleMania 40 Kickoff event. Crazier things have happened, right?

Grayson Waller doesn't understand fans turning on The Rock.

So why, you may wonder, why are Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes appearing on The Grayson Waller Effect in Perth when they are booked for separate championship matches at WrestleMania 40? Well, that probably has to do with the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who appears primed to team up with Roman Reigns to challenge the duo at the “Showcase of the Immortals.”

Discussing “The Great One's” return in an interview with Inside The Ropes, Waller noted that he doesn't particularly know why fans are down on The Rock at the moment, as he believes the hype he generates is unlike anything else in the sport today.

“I have never in my life seen so many people who can barely read and write caring about a story. It absolutely boggles my mind. A few months ago, everyone was [saying] Oh Rock, come back! How long have they wanted The Rock vs. Roman Reigns? People have been begging for it for years, then they get it, and now they’re complaining about it. It just shows, in a way, how stupid these fans are. They want this, but [then they say] we don’t want it now, we want it here. It’s like, just shut up. I was backstage for that. Maybe I don’t like The Rock, maybe I do, who knows?” Grayson Waller told Inside The Ropes.

“But the energy in that arena that night is wild. As I stood there with Theory, and Theory has been someone who stood across The Rock, 150 million hit man Austin Theory. And that’s just a different vibe to it. So you have these people who are chronically online, who don’t know what things actually feel like because they don’t leave their house. Go to the arena, feel the energy in the arena that night, and then come talk to me.”

If at any point in 2023 fans were told that The Rock was returning to WWE for a match at WrestleMania 40, it would have been a near-universally celebrated announcement, but because it came in the way it did, with Johnson seemingly stealing Cody Rhodes' spot a week after he won big at the Royal Rumble, it rapidly turned the “Brahma Bull” heel and sent the fans away from him in droves. Still, the hype is very much there, even if it's not necessarily all there for the right reason.