WWE’s Judgment Day faction underwent a significant shakeup this week. At the conclusion of Monday’s Raw, we saw Finn Balor align himself with Edge, Damien Priest and Rhea Ripley. Balor is a strong addition, but they would not remain a foursome for long.

Within moments, Balor, Priest and Ripley turned on Edge and kicked him out of the group he founded. It was a swerve that fans, nor Edge, saw coming.

Damien Priest spoke with TV Insider this week about the rise of Judgment Day, how he’s changed since joining and an NXT star he could see joining their ranks.

Coming into His Own

Damien Priest has enjoyed success in WWE, including in NXT and on the main roster. However, he feels that he’s now doing his best work and can truly realize his potential.

“The best stories are when they come from reality,” said Priest. “I was frustrated. I was doing what I was asked to do. I was this overly babyface good guy coming out smiling, happy, saying all the right things. It just didn’t click. I was doing everything everyone wanted me to do.”

Fans would cheer him whenever he was helping out WWE’s top babyface wrestlers, but that wasn’t satisfying him. Judgment Day has given him the opportunity to embrace his darker side and express himself creatively.

“I’m more comfortable now than I’ve been since joining the Raw roster.”

– Damien Priest on his role in Judgment Day

Priest was the first Superstar to embrace Edge’s dark vision. Rhea Ripley and Finn Balor would soon follow. Edge no longer fit the group’s direction, but Priest sees one NXT star in particular who would.

“If I had to pick anyone from NXT, the first person I would pick is Santos [Escobar]. I’ve always been a fan of his stuff. Just carries himself so well. Great in the ring, well-spoken. When you look at him, the guy doesn’t look like a random person. He looks like a star.”

Santos Escobar is a second-generation luchador and a former NXT Cruiserweight champion. He currently leads the Legado Del Fantasma faction. Prior to joining WWE he competed as King Cuerno in Lucha Underground.

Visit TV Insider to read their full interview with Damien Priest.

NXT North American Champion Damian Priest picked up a big win over Johnny Gargano during the NXT Takeover: 31 event and latest reports suggest that he might get even bigger opportunities in future.

Dave Meltzer talked about Priest on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio and he claimed that the WWE officials want to make him “a big star.”

Meltzer continued by saying that the officials see him as someone with a lot of potential and he explained that Johnny Gargano was used as a setup guy to get him there.

Damian Priest made his wrestling debut in 2004 but he first got famous during his run with ROH. He attended an ROH training camp in 2014 and went on to have a run with the company from 2015 to 2018.

• Also Read: Robert Roode On James Storm Possibly Joining WWE

He was signed to a contract by WWE in late 2018. He spent a year making sporadic appearances for the company and Priest has been competing regularly on the NXT programming since last October.

Damien Priest won the NXT North American Championship in a ladder match during the NXT TakeOver: XXX event and the win over the former NXT Champion Johnny Gargano further solidifies his spot in the NXT roster.

Now with the reports of WWE management being behind Priest, we can expect him to continue this momentum in the upcoming times and become part of some big matches in future.

NXT North American Championship Damien Priest recently appeared on the Gorilla Position podcast. The former Ring of Honor star discussed a number of topics during his time on the show, including Pat McAfee’s debut match against Adam Cole at NXT TakeOver: XXX.

“Absolutely outstanding performance, I mean he excelled” Damien Priest began on the podcast. “I’ve seen people wrestle for years that can’t put on a match like that. I’m just being honest, I have wrestled around the indies. And in the end? These guys can’t do what he can do.”

Damien Priest on Pat McAfee

“He [McAfee] actually telling a story and wrestling a good match? And then doing some high risk manoeuvres that are just outstanding? I mean like i said, I was surprised. I mean, I knew he had been training, I knew he trained with Rip Rogers. There was no way a professional athlete was going to come into this unprepared.”

Damien Priest would then praise McAfee further, saying how he dedicated himself to the match. “He’s a perfectionist. Like he has to be good at everything he does. He doesn’t do something just for views you know? Just because it’s cool? He’ll do it for that reason…but he has to do it well. He can’t just walk, he has to run across it.”

• Damien Priest Talks Speaking To Edge Before Takeover Ladder Match

“I wasn’t surprised that he took it as seriously as he did” Damien Priest would continue. “But just because you take it seriously? It doesn’t mean you’re going to get to THAT level of performance, especially without a track record.”

Do you agree with Damien Priest? Would you like to see another Pat McAfee match in WWE? Let us know in the comments

NXT North American Championship Damien Priest recently appeared on the Gorilla Position podcast. The former Ring of Honor star discussed a number of topics during his time on the show, including the Takeover ladder match where he won his North American Championship.

Damien Priest on Ladder Matches

Damien Priest would reveal that he studied past ladder matches ahead of the bout at NXT Takeover: XXX. “Any great matches, it’s hard to pick one. It depends on the circumstance” Damien Priest began, describing which matches he looked at in particular. “Why they’re actually in the ladder match? I find that more intriguing than anything. The story behind it.”

“Then of course the match has to deliver you know” Priest would continue. “But those are a lot of the matches that I looked at [psychology wise]. A lot of Edge matches or Undertaker matches you know? Like putting them in a ‘different’ atmosphere, to see how they reacted. Now Edge obviously was a little bit more accustomed to it.”

Damien Priest would then reveal that he actually contacted Edge before the match for his input. Edge of course has a long history of ladder match experience; the first ever tag team ladder match, the WrestleMania 2000, Summerslam 2000 TLC and Unforgiven TLC match against John Cena to name a few.

• Former WCW Champion Returns To Backstage WWE Role This Week

“Seeing that we’re very similar size and style? I kind of watched a lot of his stuff to see how he [Edge] manoeuvred” Priest stated. “How he structured stuff and his thought process going in. Then I got to talk to him about it and question him and ask him. I spent about an hour on the phone with him!”

Do you think that Damien Priest will be a top star on RAW or Smackdown in the future? Let us know in the comments

Despite his rise through the ranks on WWE’s black-and-gold brand, Damien Priest has confessed that coming to WWE made him feel as though he had only “just started.” Prior to signing with WWE, the NXT Superstar had experience on the independent circuit and with other promotions such as Ring of Honor, where he wrestled as Punishment Martinez.

“I feel like because of the knowledge that I’ve gained here, it’s like I just started,” Priest told Sporting News. “It really does feel that way and I’m still constantly asking “was that OK, is this good, how can I make this better?” like if I just started.”

Damien Priest On Needing A Game Plan

Training at the WWE Performance Center and performing in NXT has been a different experience for Priest. He highlighted how Superstars have to “explain it to ourselves as to why we do the things we do and have them make sense” as opposed to having no game plan or understanding behind their actions and character motivations.

“Before, you just go into a match or promo or appearance but there has to be more to it,” he explained. “I used to fight before I was in pro wrestling and it’s the same thing for preparation. You can’t just go out there and start swinging wildly.”

He continued, “You actually have to have a game plan, you have to have a reason and know how to defend yourself and create a game plan. It’s kind of the same thing where I never put two-and-two together and never realized that’s the way I should have always attacked this business.”

Damien Priest was unable to secure a victory this past Wednesday night on NXT. He competed in a Fatal 4 Way match up to determine the new number one contender for Roderick Strong’s NXT North American Championship.

NXT Superstar Damien Priest has been making waves since his debut on the black-and-gold brand. As well as being a top talent in the ring, Priest also has a captivating entrance. In an interview with Sporting News, Priest opened up abut refining his entrance to suit his character. He managed to achieve this with the help of a WWE Legend who knows all about attention-grabbing entrances: “The Game” Triple H.

Damien Priest On Creating Presence

Priest reflected on his love of pro wrestling growing up. For him, it was never about the flashiest moves. Instead, it was the spectacle that captured his imagination. This drive for spectacle is something Priest has attempted to showcase throughout his career, always making sure his “presence was felt a little differently than everybody else.”

“There’s no shortage of good pro wrestlers and good entertainers,” he said. “There’s so many of them nowadays. But I’ve always been adamant about the way I was presented. I wanted to make sure it was special every time. I didn’t want somebody to turn on the TV midway through an entrance and change the channel. I wanted them to be intrigued without me even performing yet in the ring. That’s how I feel in love with the business.”

Capturing The Spectacle

Priest then pointed to Legends like The Undertaker and The Ultimate Warrior and the way they could entertain the crowd before they even stepped in the ring. It was something Priest wanted to capture with his own character.

“It was mesmerizing and I wanted to make sure that was a part of what my presentation was. I had a writeup of ideas that I brought to Triple H. He was super cool, didn’t turn down any ideas, he just morphed them to make them better and was very adamant about — in agreement with me about — that my presentation had to be unique and special because there’s no shortage of guys that can go in the ring.”

He continued, “This company, especially our brand, it’s known for our go, go, go, in-ring style so that’s not an issue. The issue was creating something that stood out a little bit differently and created something a little more special which I’ve tried to do my entire career no matter where I worked. Here, with the production team we have, we’re able to do it in a way cooler way and I was excited.”

Full Entrance

Priest added how the presentation of his character with WWE’s guidance really excited him when he first signed with the promotion. He shared how, when he and other Superstars go over ideas, he will stress the importance of his full entrance. 

“I’m like as long as I have a full entrance, whatever you guys need me to do and everybody starts laughing because that, to me, is so important, the presentation aspect. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do and the way it’s perceived. People dig it and I’m glad because we worked hard at it.”

Damien Preist took part in a Fatal 4 Way on this week’s episode of NXT. The winner of the match would become the new number one contender to Roderick Strong’s NXT North American Championship. Keith Lee would emerge victorious. 

NXT Superstar Damien Priest is on the rise within WWE’s black-and-gold brand. Joining Sean “X-Pac” Waltman on his podcast, X-Pac 12360, Priest discussed the similarities between himself in real life and his on-screen character.

“This is the closest to me that I’ve ever been in this business,” Priest admitted. “The idea to live forever is to accomplish as much as I can in this business so that my name gets remembered.”

He continued,” When you think about iconic rock stars, like Morrison, and bands like Priest and Motley Crue, they’ll never get forgotten. So the idea is to have that image, because that’s the way I want to live, or at least how Damian Priest wants to live, because that’s the way somebody who’s never going to be forgotten lives. And to a certain degree, that is me. I try to live kind of like a rock star-ish life, where I like going out, I like going to concerts, I head-bang. This is all real stuff.”

“I Didn’t Know The Inside Of A Gym”

Priest recalled having a WWE tryout back in 2010. Although he was upset at the time, he now understands that he simply wasn’t ready. He confessed that he wasn’t even close to where he is now, noting that he wasn’t even in good shape. 

“I was in a shape, it was round, but I didn’t know the inside of a gym at all. I looked horrible, I was sloppy in the ring. But to me, I thought I was ready. Looking back now, I can be honest with myself and know that, although it took me a very long time to get here, I’m the most prepared I could be.”

Power Of Positivity

Like the New Day, Priest believes in the power of positivity. He stressed how this mindset helped him achieve his goals within pro wrestling, adding that his belief in “being positive” isn’t a work. 

“[…] when you really start making an effort to do it, it’s incredible the amount of positive that can happen in return. Just because you’re not so focused on the negative, and you just keep moving forward and moving forward and moving forward.”

“So even when I did my [first] PC tryout and I was turned down, while I was upset, it didn’t stop me. I still kept on working hard, and I still got more opportunities. I got an actual job in wrestling and I got to travel different parts of the world wrestling, which I’d never done in all the years I’d been in the business. And then, when I wrote this place off, all of a sudden, I’m getting a phone call, and I’m like, ‘This is unexpected, but wow.”

Damien Priest competes this Saturday at NXT TakeOver: WarGames. He will take on both Pete Dunne and Killian Dain a triple threat match. The winner of the match will receive an NXT Championship opportunity at this Sunday’s Survivor Series against Adam Cole. 

H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

NXT star Punishment Martinez is now using the name, Damien Priest.

The Sports Business Journal recently published a profile looking at WWE’s talent factory, the Performance Center. Inside the article, the former Punishment Martinez spoke about his new character.

The former MMA star and Ring of Honor wrestler joined NXT in late 2018. As Damien Priest, he’ll be getting a new persona, new music and a new look.

Priest says the new character better reflects who he is in real life, because he’s “always been into the weird, the odd, the dark.”

At 37 years old, Damien Priest is on the older side of the typical WWE recruit. He does not think his age works against him, because at the end of the day, it’s all about how you can perform.

“If I can go at the same level, then age doesn’t matter,” Priest said. “As long as I’m doing a little bit more than you, you will never be on my level. I’m not a patient person, but I’m a positive impatient. I’m not willing to just stand by. I’m going to keep pushing until something sticks.”

Visit the Sports Business Journal to read the full article.