Damian Priest NYP Interview

[Chris]

Damian Priest’s WWE rise has only just begun on journey to SummerSlam: ‘Can’t go backward’

The Bronx native won his first world championship with an epic Money in the Bank cash-in on Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 40 to become World Heavyweight champion.

nypost.com

On his rise to stardom/Judgment Day:

“I don’t feel out of place. I don’t feel uncomfortable. I’m enjoying it I think everyone around me is as well,” Priest said of his recent work with Judgment Day. “It gives me something to build on where now I can’t go backward. I just got to keep going forward now. If this is now, I can only imagine later on where I’m going to be. It’s a good sign for things to come.”

“I’m surprised every day that I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to live this way,” Priest said. “After everything had taken so long, I was still able to achieve this little boy’s dream. It means the world to me. I feel every bit of excitement and proudness and just gratefulness with my crazy ass journey.”

“It’s not a generic ‘this is how it is’ type of thing,” Priest said. “For me, it’s I need to do it on my own because if I don’t I am just like everybody else who was in a faction who really wasn’t able to be on that level. They were only there because of [the faction]. I don’t want to be a ‘because of.’ I want to be for me and ‘because I.’”

“If I can get in the ring with these incredible superstars, to me, it makes me feel like, ‘OK I do belong.’ I can do this. I can do this here and hang with these guys and work at this level,’ ” Priest said. “It’s something special. Also, to have them have that same vibe back where they look at me and know that I belong. They’re saying it and they mean it. That to me is one of the most important things in our business when you get the respect of your peers and the top peers.”

On Gunther at SummerSlam:

“That reign that he had and the people he beat and how he beat them it’s kind of hard to argue that,” Priest said. “So for me, regardless of everything he says, a win over him just solidifies what we’re talking about and my position in the company.”

On MITB botched 3 count:

“The idea that I forgot to kick out, that not a thing,” he said. “That’s not a thing. We don’t forget to kick out. Twenty years in, I’m pretty sure there is some kind of muscle memory there. So me forgetting was not the case. There was nothing outside that was supposed to happen. It was a matter of there was a situation, but I’m OK. Everybody’s fine, the story continues.”

“It doesn’t affect anything,” Priest said. “The show goes on and I think fans are very invested in everything that’s going on. The ones that matter knew the situation and nobody thought twice about it. It was, move on.”

On Rhea/Liv/Dom angle:

“Whether we like it or not, ultimately that’s the goal,” Priest said. “They are making people feel emotionally invested in what they’re doing and what they’re gonna to do next. As weird as it is, this is also exciting because I know this is gonna go down a path that everyone is going to be talking about.”

“We just got back from the gym and we were riding in the car and I literally told her, ‘Man, it’s really good to have you back.’ I’ve felt like I’ve been missing something and it was my friend,” Priest said. “It’s my road buddy. It’s my backstage buddy. Besides our TV dynamic, it’s everything else. I missed having that person next to me that also pushes me.”

 

[Dale]

Guy has been doing really good work. Naturally it will probably be a little deflating for him when he loses the title at SummerSlam but to then be able to jump fully into the hot Judgement Day & Liv saga, he's gonna be more than fine.