Damian Priest Explains Why He Turned His Back on R-Truth

During a recent interview with WWE Radio’s Off The Ropes, WWE Superstar Damian Priest explained why he turned his back on his former tag team partner R-Truth last month. He also addressed R-Truth’s recent comments on social media, where he joked about Damian Priest trying to kill him during their match on SmackDown.

As noted, Priest and R-Truth’s SmackDown match was stopped early after R-Truth suffered an injury during the bout. R-Truth later wrote, “On 10/16/2026, I almost passed away… Damien Priest tried to kill me; I didn’t think he was that serious… But ok, I’ll be back.” Below are some highlights from Priest (via Fightful):

Damian Priest on Why He Turned on R-Truth

“It’s one of those things that I’m just looking around, looking and reading the room, and I’m seeing everybody or a lot of others achieve things that I want and progressing. What are they doing? What am I not doing? Everybody’s just doing what they gotta do, and I’m over here playing with my friends. That’s the difference. Am I doing a job or am I pretending to do a job? I was pretending; I was playing. I was trying to appease other people instead of, you know, worrying about myself. You might be in a tag team for a minute, but at the end of the day, this is an individual business. This is not a team sport. You gotta start thinking about yourself, because when I sign a contract, I’m not signing a contract with the Judgment Day. I’m not signing a contract with R-Truth. I’m signing a contract for Damian Priest. So, Damian Priest needs to be the priority. Once I put that into focus and kind of started — I had to go back home and remember how I started this journey and what got me here. Once I started doing that and then focusing on me, I already feel — I haven’t even done what I’m setting out to do yet, but I already feel good about it. It’s just a whole different vibe, a whole different feel. I’m in a really good place now.”

On R-Truth Joking That He Tried To Kill Him

“Can you believe this guy is trying to blame me? I’ve been told that he posted some stupid thing about that; he’s good, but that I tried to end his life. He tried to end his own life just trying to win a match against me. The guy is — it explains who he is.”

R-Truth updated fans, letting them know he was okay after the match. He also shared a photo of himself near an MRI machine.