Damian Priest: Anyone Can Be A Wrestler, There Is Only One Place To Be A WWE Superstar
Damian Priest is one of the featured stars on WWE Raw, having been in high profile matches at WrestleMania where he teamed with Bad Bunny and being a former United States Champion.
Priest has been wrestling for nearly two decades and honed his craft on the Independent scene before signing with WWE in 2018.
WWE has embraced the term “superstar” over “wrestler” with Vince McMahon recently saying, “Our performers, there is a reason I call them superstars, they are not just wrestlers, it’s because anyone can wrestle, either poorly or well. Do you want to be a professional wrestler or do you want to be a WWE superstar? WWE superstar sounds a whole lot better to me than being a professional wrestler.”
Speaking to ViBe & Wrestling, Priest echoed Vince’s sentiment.
“The way he explained it was perfect. It is clear that I am a wrestler and that I am a professional and that is why I trained for, but I am a WWE Superstar and that is something else. Anyone can be a wrestler but there is only one place where you can be a WWE Superstar and that is obviously in WWE. For me that was the dream, I always wanted to be a Superstar and I love that the nickname or name that he gives us is that one because it is special and we deserve a name like that,” said Priest.
Elsewhere during the interview, Priest weighed in on whether or not wrestling is an art.
“It is a business of opinions but at the end of the day it is art. We know that when we go out we are going to hit each other and we are going to hit hard, but there is a way to do it without going over. You want your opponent to feel the blows but not to harm them for the future, so that they can wrestle tomorrow, that is the idea and sometimes it is difficult, sometimes there are mistakes, for example, the clothesline you speak hurted me more because they gave four stitches in my arm. I hit him and the damage was for me but those things happen. It is a very difficult profession in which you have to be incredibly careful because, as you say, we have to hit; It’s very physical but you have to do it the right way because there is a right way and to be in WWE you have to be the best of the bests. Yes, for me it is art because you have to study and know the position of all the keys, locks and blows and everything to be able to do it correctly and not hurt the other person,” he said.
Priest lost the United States Championship to Finn Balor on the February 28 episode of WWE Raw.
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