NXT North American Champion Damian Priest recently appeared on WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves. He discussed his road to WWE, his friendships with fellow WWE wrestlers, and more. Here are some highlights:
On how the night club gimmick reflects his real life:
Priest: “[I worked] a lot of odd jobs, with a lot of clubs. Lot of clubs. So you know the night life, that was also real. I’ve been used to it since I was 19 years old, I’ve been working in bars and clubs and everything in between, and I’ve worked every single position that you can imagine and go into in that industry and I did that just to pay for training and pay to wrestle, because you know how it is, in the industry, especially when you’re starting out, you’re paying to wrestle.”
“I remember 2014, I had my last tryout with the company, which they didn’t sign me the time, and they said there’s nothing for you right now, and I remember lotta nights just not being able to eat because I couldn’t afford, and getting letters of eviction notice and having to go and deal with that, and like I said, trying to stay above water ’til I finally caught a break.”
On his friendships with Matt Riddle and Keith Lee:
Priest: “One of my best friends in the world is Matt Riddle. You know, I helped train Matt at The Monster Factory for a while, so we formed a bond in those years that we were together. And then because we were actually a team in the indys for a little bit, and then he left to come here, I went to Ring of Honor and then I ended up here anyway, and then it was cool because we just picked up where we left off. And we’re always like, especially in his time in NXT, we were always together every road trip and in the locker room and we were inseparable.”
“Keith Lee is also one of my best friends in the business. Again, met him in Ring of Honor originally, but we really got close in NXT, just same mentality, same drive, same passion and same positivity. And the three of us together were always like a unit.”
On the presentation of his character:
Priest: “I think I always stood out a little bit because of that, as far as, ‘oOkay he’s not just like every other guy here that comes out with kickpads and does a bunch of stuff,’ you know, I had a full presentation. And I remember when I was hired here, that was one of the first things Hunter told me. He was like, ‘Dude,’ he was like, ‘There’s no shortage of good wrestlers.’ He was like, ‘Everybody here’s good and that’s why they work were here.’ He goes, ‘So me hiring you, you know, I could hire anybody if I wanted to hire a good wrestler.’ He goes , ‘You, it was the idea of something special with you.’ He goes, That’s what I saw and that’s why I brought you in because I really believed we could do something even more with you that you’ve never been able to do before.'”
The full interview is available here:
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