Damian Priest Fires Back At Fan Speculation Around Recent Botch

Damian Priest says a recent botch was down to a “situation.”

At Money In The Bank, Damian Priest successfully defended his World Heavyweight Title against Seth Rollins. The match even featured a Money In The Bank contract cash-in from Drew McIntyre, but Priest kept hold of the gold thanks to CM Punk.

McIntyre’s cash-in came just as Rollins had Priest pinned, but in a moment of confusion, the referee stopped counting despite Priest not kicking out. As the crowd wondered what was going on, McIntyre’s music finally hit.

In a new interview with Joseph Staszewski for the New York Post, Priest denied he forgot to kick out, claiming the incident was down to a “situation.”

“The idea that I forgot to kick out, that’s not a thing. 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. 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.”

It was later reported there was no heat on the referee for the botch, although that wouldn’t have been the same during the Vince McMahon era.

Damian Priest’s World Title Reign Under Threat

Next up for Damian Priest is a clash with Gunther at SummerSlam, after the latter earned his shot after winning King of the Ring.

Meanwhile, ‘Damian Priest Live’ has also been added to SummerSlam weekend. The very special event at The Agora Cleveland on Friday, August 2nd will see the premiere of WWE 24: Damian Priest, as well as a discussion panel with Priest, Rhea Ripley, and Dominik Mysterio.