Damian Priest Reveals What Bad Bunny Requested For WWE Backlash Match
Damian Priest has shed some light on what Bad Bunny was adamant about for their WWE Backlash 2023 match.
Bad Bunny is a Grammy Award-winning singer who sells out shows all over the world, whether they are in stadiums or arenas. He’s also a huge wrestling fan who has competed in three WWE matches.
The first match that Bad Bunny had in WWE was WrestleMania 37 in 2021, when he teamed up with Damian Priest to beat The Miz and John Morrison. Bunny had an impressive performance in the match.
Two years later, at Backlash 2023 in Puerto Rico, Bunny was even better when he beat Priest in a San Juan Street Fight in Bunny’s home country of Puerto Rico. It’s a match fans remember well for how good it was and how loud the crowd was.
While speaking to actor Nick Turturro on the Prince St. Pizza podcast, Priest spoke about how Bunny wanted the match to be in Puerto Rico.
“Part of the side that I don’t like to admit is how much, how nervous I was. Not because I was wrestling.. but the nerves of if this doesn’t… if this is not good… if this doesn’t work, what happens to me and my career.
“The company at the time they weren’t sure about doing the event in Puerto Rico. And, this happens all the time; it’s not because it was Puerto Rico.
“They were thinking about moving the event, and ultimately it came down to ‘No, we want it to be in Puerto Rico’. We wanted this match, and specifically Bunny. He wanted the match to happen in Puerto Rico.”
Bad Bunny Wanted Singles Match With Damian Priest
As Damian Priest continued talking about the match with Bad Bunny, he revealed that Bunny really wanted a singles match at Backlash in Puerto Rico, and pushed for it.
“Then, it was like, what if we do some type of tag match, just because, rightfully so, they didn’t trust… a lot of it had to do with me because I hadn’t proven myself in that sense yet. But, also with anybody just in general, it’s just safer to add in more people. We’ve done that before, I’d teamed with Bad Bunny at a different WrestleMania, so to them it’s just safer.
“But, he was adamant that it had to be one-on-one, on the island and that I was adamant about it, but I had a lot less pull than he did, especially at that time. But, I really wanted it to happen there too, because I knew what it… culturally and locally would help the economy on the island, and what it meant for Hispanics and Latinos just in general.”
“Here we are and they finally said ‘yes, we’ll do a singles match’ and I was flying to LA every week to train him, and help him out and lock it in for this match. So when that day came, I knew that this was more important than just about anything I was ever going to do.”
When talking about his WWE career, former World Champion Damian Priest talked about how big it was to win the World Title
“Winning championships. Don’t get me wrong, winning the World Title at WrestleMania is incredible, but having something that has actual impact on the local community… (it was personal to you?) Yeah, this was more than just a dream. This is a dream I didn’t know I was having, put it that way.
“So, the fact that we went out there and then killed it meant that I can retire right now, I’m okay with it.
“And, I’ll say this, the only reason it was good is because he busted his ass to make sure it was good. He brought it, he trained. (He seems like a hard worker) That’s why he’s in the position he’s in. I’ve said that… nobody hands you that type of stuff. Some people are just lucky, don’t get me wrong, but he’s always been that way. From since I’ve known him, if he’s gonna do something he has to go full throttle, and it has to be good because he doesn’t want to embarrass or his people. He’s very prideful in that sense, which I think most of us who are successful in entertainment are.”
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