Damian Priest Breaks Silence On Shock WrestleMania Win

Damian Priest is the World Heavyweight Champion.

WrestleMania 40 didn’t start in the greatest of fashion for Damian Priest, but it ended higher than he could have ever dreamed.

On night one, Priest and Finn Balor lost both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Titles in a wild Ladder Match but better things were to come. In the opening match of night two, Drew McIntyre defeated a battered and broken Seth Rollins to finally become World Champion, earning his long-awaited WrestleMania moment. However, his preoccupation with CM Punk on commentary proved to be his downfall.

Punk attacked McIntyre and Priest took the opportunity to cash in his Money In The Bank contract. Priest hit his South of Heaven Chokeslam to claim the win before celebrating with the entirety of Judgment Day at the top of the ramp.

Damian Priest Reflects On Life Highlight

Speaking at the WrestleMania XL Night Two post-show press conference, Priest broke down exactly what the victory meant to him, reflecting on his long rise to the top. The Judgment Day star revealed he thought he’d be fired at one point before finding his feet with Finn Balor, Rhea Ripley, Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh.

“It’s one of those things that’s really hard to put into words. It’s like, what’s happening? Starting from two years ago when we formed the Judgment Day, there was kind of an idea of using talent that could possibly be main-eventers or have been main-eventers, but they’re just floating. Then it took off to a different direction, and I’ll be honest, there was a moment that I wasn’t sure it was gonna work. I thought I was done. I wasn’t even sure I was gonna still be here with the company, to be honest. Then I don’t know.

It was just the addition obviously with Finn Balor, Rhea, then Dom, and now JD, I feel like all of our differences made something special. All of us bring out the best out of each other. Then flowing into Puerto Rico, and that event, which I still to this day, it was one of the most important matches of my career. The win or loss was inconsequential. It was about representation and what we can do to show off, show off that the company in another country or in another atmosphere could be successful.

Now, you see with the business we’re doing in all these other countries, I mean, Australia was incredible. Then we flow into Money in the Bank, which was in London, and that was cool. But even still, you never know what’s gonna happen.

It took me a minute to cash in, but you’re talking about one of the greatest, if not the greatest, WrestleMania of all time, in a city where it was 20 minutes away from where I started my career, I did it in front of my father, my brothers, friends, one of the coolest moments of my life.

Shoutout to the Philadelphia crowd because they made that really special,”

Damian Priest signed with WWE in 2018 and began life in NXT before moving to the main roster in 2021.

H/t to Fightful