Damian Priest sat down with Pro Wrestling Sheet for a wide ranging interview. He discussed his North American title win over the weekend at TakeOver XXX,.
Priest, whose been circling the North American Championship for months, wrestled in a ladder match to crown a new champion on Saturday against some of the top competitors in NXT.
PRIEST: To finally achieve it, it was all the feels combined. I was ecstatic, happy, emotional, everything. Everything encompassed in one. That’s why I said all that was real.
And when the cameras went off, I didn’t get out of the hot tub. When I finally got out because they were kicking me out, I just went to another place to continue celebrating. It didn’t stop
That’s just who I am. What you see now is not a character. I’m not pretending. I’m not doing somebody a favor by doing a job the way I’m asked to portray a certain persona. I’m not doing that anymore. Hunter and Shawn gave me their full support too. “Hey, go out there and be yourself!” And I finally figured out how to do that. So now I’m really just being me. All the time. 24/7. And I love it because I don’t have to stop and go.
PWS: When did that conversation happen? Because I’ve noticed the presentation of Damian Priest on TV as of late has seemed to shift in a way that allows your true personality to come out more and I had been wondering what inspired the change. Did this conversation happen around the time of the Finn Balor match? That’s when I personally started to notice it.
PRIEST: It was basically in the lead in to that match.
It’s a cool story. I was talking or doing something and Triple H heard me. Then he pulled me aside and we were just talking. Then he started telling me about advice that Undertaker gave him about when you learn how to be yourself, you’ll make a lot of money in this business. That’s what Undertaker told him. Then he tapped me on the chest and basically said, “now I’m telling you that.”
I didn’t realize it until he said that, that although they had been for months telling me “hey, you can just be you now,” I was still pretending to be a version of me. Or I was pretending to be who people thought I was, instead of really being me, and I think that day it hit me.
I was like, “Oh … I’m still pretending.”
It was even the way I was speaking in promos, where I felt like I had to have a certain voice and I had to sound a certain way. Instead of just talking like I’m speaking to you right now. And Shawn would be on me about that too. He was like, “Hey, you’re a pretty cool guy. Just be you.” I think finally leading into that match, I think that’s when it finally all came together and I haven’t looked back since. Obviously working with Finn Balor makes it really easy to go out and put on a great match too.
PWS: You payed homage to HBK with your gear at TakeOver this weekend, what was his reaction to seeing you in it?
PRIEST: He died laughing when he saw it. I wondered if he would even get it, because he’s worn so much stuff. But immediately he knew. He was like, “Ohh, there it is!” and started laughing. So I was really happy.
Of course with certain things or certain people I’ll reach out and ask, but with that one I kinda wanted to surprise him … but at the same time I was hoping he was ok with it. Because you never know.
PWS: Totally. If you had walked in and he’s like, “Hey, why are you stealing my thing?” You’d have felt so defeated right before your big match!
PRIEST: Right. But no, everyone has been super cool any time I do something like that. I remember my first TakeOver when I kinda paid homage to The Outsiders. The pants were kinda Kevin Nash. The vest was kinda Scott Hall. They were at the taping the week before TakeOver and I remember telling Scott the idea and showing him pictures of the gear to make sure it’s cool. And he’s excited saying he loves when people bring him up. He’s like “You’re keeping people thinking about me. That’s cool.” I was like that’s fine by me, because it means something to me.
Then he was like, “show Kev.”
I remember thinking, like, “naw, we don’t have to.” Just cause I didn’t know! I already knew Scott somewhat. I had never really had interactions with Kevin. So, I don’t know. But he was also super cool about it. He saw it and was like, “Oh, that’s awesome, man! That’s really cool.” Then they were thanking me! That’s when I realized it was definitely cool.
PWS: Did you watch the HBK/Razor ladder match, or any other famous ladder matches, to prepare for the one you had over the weekend?
PRIEST: I watched almost every ladder match ever in the last two weeks. Just because I had never been in a ladder match.
PWS: That was your first-ever ladder match?!
PRIEST: I was the only one in that match who had never been in a ladder match. I’ve never climbed a ladder in a ring.
So, for me, I was asking a million questions to anybody that would listen and then watching every match to see why things work, why they didn’t. And then after all those hours of footage, I learned nothing. I was just like, “Oh my god. This is gonna suck!” Because everything looks so painful!
PWS: Prepare for pain.
PRIEST: Basically. But obviously I got to get advice from a lot of people. I spoke to Edge for like an hour the day before the match and just picked his brain. Getting little nuances like what should I be ready for and just little things that reassured me about expecting the unexpected. Just making sure you’re very aware of your surroundings. Ladders are not gonna work out the way you want them to. They’re not gonna position the way you want them to. They’re gonna move when you try to do something off of them. And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. But I was ready because of the questions that I asked. So they definitely helped and I was very appreciative of everyone who gave me input and gave me advice going in.
PWS: Are you a big Twisted Sister fan? I saw you got some love from Dee Snider this weekend after quoting those lyrics.
PRIEST: He and Twisted Sister used to hangout with my parents.
PWS: What?!?
PRIEST: Yeah! My father was friends with Eddie Ojeda, who was the guitarist. They had a mutual friend and that’s how my father met them. And I guess when I was a small kid they would come over to my parent’s apartment in New York, here and there, it wasn’t like they were best friends, but they hung out a few times.
He’d see them play in Staten Island at some club they used to play a lot of gigs at. So that was really cool when he shouted me out on Twitter. I thought that was neat.
I know Hunter’s talked to him about me actually, and my parents, which is kinda neat too.
PWS: Well now I want to see Twisted Sister or Dee Snider perform your entrance or something at TakeOver.
PRIEST: At this point, I need a live music entrance by somebody.
PWS: You and Keith Lee faced-off a lot in NXT, what did you think of his debut on Raw?
PRIEST: I was happy. Obviously everybody knows our history in the ring together, but through competition you form relationships and through rivalries you end up getting a deeper respect for each other.
Because of the battles that we’ve had, we ended up becoming really good friends and I was stoked for him. Him being “limitless,” I know that’s like his thing, but it’s so true. Sky’s the limit there for him. I think he’s gonna do extremely well there. Just as he did in NXT. That’s the reason why everywhere he goes he excels the way he does. He’s gonna be fine there. I’m excited to see where they go from here with him.
PWS: Lastly, what did you and the other people in the locker room think of Pat McAfee’s NXT debut at TakeOver?
PRIEST: What everybody else thought. We were all surprised. I knew he had training. I know he’s an athlete. You know he’s a jerk, so he’s got a personality. I do get along with him though (laughs). I actually like the guy.
But you still don’t know what to expect. That’s a lot of pressure. I know the pressure that I have and I always fear of not being able to perform to the highest ability that I can perform to. What he did, he surpassed expectations. From not just fans, but from us. Everybody in the back was like, that was actually good for anybody. Not just somebody’s first match. Not just an outsider. That was good for anybody’s match. And we saw two of those this weekend, which was kinda cool with Dominik Mysterio as well. That one I kinda expected though. There was no way he was not going to be good.
But Pat, that was impressive. And kudos to him for actually putting in the effort to be good. That’s something that needs to be said about that. He could’ve just came in and taken whatever he was going to get paid, done a match and left. But he went out there and he put in work. You could tell he really prepared for this. There’s no amount of training that can substitute for a performance. So that was extremely impressive.
*INTERVIEW SLIGHTLY EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY*
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