Damian Priest On How Working With Edge Helped Him Grow, Evolution Of The Judgment Day

Damian Priest credits his time with Edge with helping him grow into the performer he is now. The Judgment Day member recently spoke with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick on After the Bell, where he talked about being taken under Edge’s wing and the evolution of the stable, plus more. You can check out some highlights below:

On his evolution within the group: “Man, what a wild year starting with Edge at last year’s WrestleMania. First of all it was awesome, you know. Just the comfort that came with working with Edge at first, where he kind of instilled in me, and was like, ‘Hey, this is to build you and make you the star that I know you can be.’ And then having Rhea come in, and that was the mentality. And him getting us to be comfortable just being ourselves instead of being something that anybody else wanted us to be.

“And then obviously, kicking him out of the group and Finn Balor joining and then Dominik. And now we’re all — I mean, it’s crazy how… Judgment Day doesn’t even look the same from when it started. You know, we were still trying to find our way. And I think it was best case scenario for all of us to be in the group together, because we all kind of helped each other, you know? We all leaned on each other. And we still do. And today I mean, you see the dynamic on TV; there’s no faking, there’s no, ‘How should I?’ It’s so smooth. Like, we feel good every time. We’re always joking around and laughing, and like, ‘Man, this is great!’ This is the dream. This is what we wanted out of being in this business.”

On if he had to swallow his pride when he came under Edge’s tutelage: “No, it — so that’s the thing. I felt like I had success but. I don’t know. It just, something wasn’t clicking. And I felt it, I know that WWE Universe felt it, I couldn’t even explain it. And Edge approached me with this idea. And being somebody who admired Edge before that and I was a fan, and I appreciated all his advice to me, it wasn’t so much having to swallow my pride. I was like, ‘This has got to be the way. This is definitely going to work. I’m all in.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I’ll do whatever it takes, you know? Let’s do this.’

“And going, sitting under his learning tree, I mean, he’s — this business, talk about somebody who’s born for this. And just the advice like, we almost talked just about every single day while we were in The Judgment Day together. Where I would call him, or he would just call me, and we would just talk about just ideas. Or you know, he’d be like, ‘Hey, so what do you think?’ Which I thought was also cool. He wanted to hear my opinions.”

On how Edge asking him for ideas helped him: “And then him kind of putting that ball in my hands where I needed to be creative. I guess that also helped, because it kept the creative juices flowing. And I was always trying to think of something new, and something different, and how do we present this and that? And I think by the time it came time to getting the rest of the members in The Judgment Day, I was ready to just portray myself the way I wanted to and be comfortable in my own skin. So that was the case when I joined him; it was, ‘I’m all in.’ And then going from that to then the boys and Rhea joining it to where we are now is wild, man.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s After the Bell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.