Kevin Owens Reveals He Turned Down A Storyline With Damian Priest In 2021

During an interview with Cody Rhodes for What Do You Wanna Talk About (via Fightful), Kevin Owens revealed that he turned down a storyline involving Damian Priest back in 2021, in which Priest would be Owens’ ‘best friend’. He noted that just looking at the two of them, fans would be able to tell they had nothing in common.

He said: “In 2021, the pandemic era, I was embroiled in a feud with Roman Reigns. It was the beginning of a four-year nightmare that would not stop for me. When it started, we were wrestling in empty buildings, we had the weird screens [Thunderdome]. Right when we were going to have the blow off match, it was going to the Last Man Standing at Royal Rumble, which turned out to be everyone’s favorite match that we had. About three weeks before, I’m thinking, ‘We firing on all cylinders, we’re going to Royal Rumble. Big match. Going to be a lot of fun.’ I’m at televsion and they tell me, ‘Things are kind of changing now. You’re going to be introduced to your new best friend to help you take on the Bloodline because of the numbers games.’ ‘Who is this guy?’ ‘Do you know Damian Priest from NXT?’ ‘The guy with arrows?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Well, nothing against him, but no one would believe that we’re best friends. We could not be more opposite. Why? It’s so random.’ Turns out, somebody threw this idea out there and it stuck for about five minutes before I said no. I didn’t want to be friends with him on TV. Maybe real life, let’s start somewhere. He was going to take my match. It was going to be him vs. Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble. I was incensed. I said no. For what it’s worth, I didn’t derail his career, he was on the main roster like two weeks later.“