One of WWE’s top tag teams is no more – but blink and you’d have missed it.
A-Town Down Under Austin Theory and Grayson Waller had firmly established themselves as one of the most detestable duos on the company’s roster across the last two years.
Waller is very much the Aussie living it up in the States, a loudmouth trash talker with the ability to back up his words, but rarely the desire.
Theory, meanwhile, is an established singles star in his own right – a former United States Champion who beat John Cena at WrestleMania 39 and was once handpicked by Vince McMahon as the company’s next megastar.
He, too, has incredible tools but, as a character, allows his mouth to get him in to trouble too often, making his tandem with Waller the absolute peak of wrestling tag teams.
It appeared they were on course to be exactly that for quite some time, too, enjoying a reign as WWE Tag Team Champions.
WWE even seemed to be preparing them for the ultimate rite of passage for any villainous tag team – the slow split, where at least one breaks out as a solo star.
Theory seemed primed for that. He was generating organic crowd support during matches, often cast as the down-trodden partner, while Waller played the more obvious villain.
The tension between the two has been building for much of the last year and fans had therefore expected Theory to break away on his own and shoot up the WWE card. Sadly they might be disappointed if Monday’s Raw is any indication.
Rather than giving their split major screen time and a significant pay off, bosses appear to have pulled the plug on the duo with barely a whimper – only a brief backstage segment acknowledging that their team, A-Town Down Under, are no more.
Waller appeared backstage with The New Day, gleefully proclaiming: “I have some great news — Austin Theory is A-Town Down, mate. He went and got himself injured.
“A-Town Down Under is finally done – 240 pounds of dead weight off my back!”
In a solo video posted on social media later, the Australian added: “I just want to send a quick message to all five of Austin Theory’s fans. I know tonight must have been hard, finding out he’s A-Town Down n Out injured.
“I just wanted to remind you, this isn’t a time of commiseration, no, this is a time of celebration.”
Fans had little issue with Waller playing the heel role and gloating about an apparent injury to Theory, but the lack of proper ending for their tag team given the time they’d spent together – and the time teasing the youngster’s revolt – has left many angry at Head of Creative Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque.
“Triple H officially buried Austin Theory,” one fan wrote on X. “The same man who has wins over Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, Edge and Finn Bálor.”
Another asked of the team: “Did they really do the break up off TV after over a year of build-up?”
Plenty called back to Theory’s high standing with former WWE chief McMahon as a contributing factor to his downfall since the promoter’s departure.
“[They] teased A Town Down Under turning on each other for over a year just to end it off screen,” one added.
“Theory’s only fault is that he was handpicked by Vince McMahon to be the future face of WWE.”
Another backed that up, saying: “They’ve been teasing the Austin Theory and Grayson Waller split for over a year and a half now, and they didn’t even bother to do it on TV.
“Complete mockery of Theory and the fans. Theory’s only fault is that he was handpicked by Vince to be the next face of the company.”
Others balanced out the disappointment with a ray of hope, suggesting any injury may be purely for storyline purposes and that Theory will be back soon enough to exact revenge on his former partner.
“Pretty sure Grayson is lying, and Austin is coming for him,” insisted one fan on X.
A-Town Down Under had been irritating fans as heels since September 2023.
Almost two years later, much of that hard work and investment of time appears to be up in smoke, unless there’s very WWE twist in the tale.