Damian Priest on Other Celebrities Not Training at Bad Bunny’s Level, Getting a Big Spot on the Roster

– Steven Muehlhausen with DAZN recently interviewed WWE Superstar Damian Priest, who discussed making his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 37, where he teamed up with Bad Bunny in a successful tag team match against The Miz & John Morrison. Below are some highlights.

Priest on what it’s been like since moving up to the main roster and working with Bad Bunny: “It’s been crazy. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more. Like you said, from the Royal Rumble and just the amount of attention I’ve been getting. It got crazy, especially leading into WrestleMania. It’s a wild ride, but man, I’m loving every second of it. It’s just been what I’ve always wanted. All the work and the time you put into it. It’s all part of it. I welcome it all, and I love it.”

On moving up to such a prime position in WWE: “I don’t know how I got here. It means the world man like, this is the dream, right? This is why I wanted to come here and to actually achieve it and then to be in there and not just have a match, but like you said, we created a moment, and it was a good one. I had a blast. It’s surreal. I don’t understand how I was chosen to be successful in that spot. It could have been anybody, but for whatever reason, it was me. I think all of us in the ring because it takes all of us. I think we all knocked it out of the park. I was looking out into the crowd and seeing all the smiling faces of people jumping up and down. That was just as much like we shared all that together. I think myself, Bad Bunny, Miz and Morrison, Eddie the referee, the announcers, and all the fans, we all shared that together. We were all genuinely excited and happy, hyped and all the ball of emotions that are positive. We all shared those together in that moment. That’s something I will never forget.”

Damian Priest on training with Bad Bunny for his in-ring debut: “We started working out because I trained with him from the get-go. very time he was in the ring, I was with him and others like Norman Smiley, Adam Pearce, Drew Gulak, Brian Kendrick. Other hands helped his training and getting him ready. But I was there the entire way—every single time. We got in the ring before the Royal Rumble. I worked with him to get that crossbody. We all made sure that he was ready for every little step. He put in work at the PC. He also put in work before Raw. Sometimes we’d have to go to Tampa and put in work before Smackdown. We didn’t have to be there, but he wanted to put in extra time. He needed extra time. So he’d say, ‘Hey, is there any way we can get in the ring?’ We had extra rings at the time we were at Tropicana Field. He wanted to get some ring time there. So let’s go for two hours, let’s drive two hours to spend two hours and then drive two hours back. It was all worth it. He had no issue putting in the work. I knew he would surprise a lot of people because though again like you said, nobody expected it. Nobody knew. You hear that he’s training. Anybody can train. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be any good. It doesn’t mean you’re taking it to the fullest seriously.

Damian Priest on other celebrities in wrestling who didn’t train at Bad Bunny’s level: “There’s been other celebrities, and they train, but they didn’t train to the level he did mentally. He took this very prideful. He didn’t want to embarrass himself, the company, his fans, our fans, me, and anybody else in the ring because the first thing he was worried about was earning respect. He didn’t want to disrespect anybody. He wanted to make sure that people didn’t like him just because he was a celebrity here. He wanted to earn the respect of the boys and girls first and then go from there. I remember the Friday before Mania, Randy Orton going up to him and saying, ‘Hey, man, I want to say thank you because nobody, I’ve never seen anybody treat this business the way you have. So thank you for doing that and being so respectful to our stuff’. Bad Bunny is a humble dude. He’s quiet and shy. He was just like, ‘No, no, my pleasure. Thank you for accepting me’. That’s who he is. I was so happy that he got to deliver the way. He did shock everyone because he earned it. He really did earn that opportunity and that moment.”