Exclusive: 'Bad Bunny & Judgment Day Is A No-Brainer For Me': Damian Priest Teases What's Next

It’s been a whirlwind year for Damian Priest and Judgment Day. After unceremoniously booting Edge from the group in the fall, they have been running roughshod through the RAW roster, with the group exploring individual goals while still maintaining their identity as one of the most vicious factions in recent memory.

Of course, even the most diabolical crews put aside their own agendas to help out one their own. Exhibit A: Judgment Day showing off their caring sides as they tended to a hapless Dominic Mysterio thanks to a misting by Asuka this past Monday night:

“Hey man, it could be worse. Something else could always burn worse,” Damian Priest told Dominic, seemingly unaware of the well-meaning advice’s double meaning. 

After Priest managed to say that line live on national television while keeping a straight face, we knew we needed to speak to him again. In an exclusive interview with us in late September, Damian Priest opened up about Judgment Day, who was then embroiled in a feud with Edge and Rey Mysterio. This time around, Priest is back for round two with USA Insider — and he took us behind the scenes for a special look at his character, his real-life locker-room friendships, and more.

Ever since Triple H took over as head of creative a few months ago, WWE Superstars have embraced a regime that allows their presentation to be a more focused effort. Just last week, Karrion Kross told us how important his presentation is for his character, and when the topic of presentation came up, Priest acknowledged that it feels like everyone is now on the same page. After all, his character has evolved over the years, but sometimes it felt like an arbitrary process.

“I was this rock star, then I was like a party boy, then I was like, Super Captain Puerto Rico," he said with a laugh. "Then had like a Jekyll and Hyde-thing with anger issues, and now I feel like I’m in a good combination of all of those personas where I can combine them and use them to my advantage. I’m having a lot of fun with the Damian Priest character right now.”

Speaking again to the creative aspect of his character, Priest told us that there’s now a much more collaborative process around how he and Judgment Day is presented on television, with input coming from both their Superstars themselves and the creative team to come up with something that rings true for the WWE Universe.

“Obviously, the people in charge, guys like Triple H, they know a thing or two about this business,” he said. “So it’s easy to just let them steer and do your best to bring their vision to life. But the best of us take those suggestions and the vision and make it into our own. So for me, it’s like ... give me a purpose, and let me guide it the way I would. We’re a team, so you have to be able to listen, adapt, and bring something to the table as far as the creative process goes.”

On-screen, Damian Priest and the rest of Judgment Day are nearly inseparable. You rarely find one without the others, as they’re constantly supporting each other at ringside during matches. In fact, all members of the Judgment Day are pretty tight behind the scenes too. Why wouldn’t they be, right? 

But there has to be other Superstars Priest gravitates to in the locker room aside from the Judgment Day, and we asked him if he had any bonds or friendships with anyone else in WWE when the cameras aren’t rolling. Not surprisingly — with a personality as big as he has — Priest has a lot of Superstars he regards as friends.

“I’ve got my boys like Sheamus and Drew McIntyre,” he said. “You know, you go through wars with these guys and that earns respect and friendship. And that’s a real thing in our industry: Usually you beat up your friends harder than you beat up your enemies, and you can see in our matches how hard we go at each other. So those are two of my dudes ... we talk regularly, we’ll watch each other’s stuff and text — obviously we’re on different brands — but we’ll text, ‘Hey good stuff tonight, that was a killer promo, hell of a match,’ you know, stuff like that.”

(Talk about a group chat every WWE fan would love to be a part of!)

In continuing to talk about his behind-the-scenes friendships, Priest went on to reveal that he’s quite close with a certain newly-crowned United States champion!

“It’s funny, you form bonds with people for many different reasons. And right now on the RAW brand, Austin Theory is one of my dudes,” he said. “We travel a lot together, and we talk a lot. As great as he is and as talented as he is, one of his best qualities is that he is always asking questions. He’s always trying to get better and always trying to learn, not just from me, but from anybody. It’s not complicated — you’re drawn to a person like him. His work ethic is through the roof, and that’s awesome.”

That got us thinking: Was the mentorship and friendship given by Damian Priest the catalyst for Austin Theory moving past his Money in the Bank cash-in and capturing the United States title? (Hey, it couldn’t have hurt, right?)

Before our time with Priest came to an end, we invariably had to ask him about the latest rumors involving Bad Bunny. In case you haven’t heard, Bunny and Triple H were spotted in Los Angeles enjoying lunch together last week, sparking rumors of a Bad Bunny return to WWE around WrestleMania time. Bunny and Priest memorably picked up a WrestleMania win in 2021 over Miz and John Morrison as a tag team, so we were naturally left wondering if Priest was privvy to any insider information about these latest developments — and if he’d be open to Bad Bunny possibly joining the Judgment Day.

“I’m glad you brought that up,” he said. “Because there’s always room for expansion in Judgment Day. So being that I’m homies with him, we talk every once in a while. The idea that once again he may be making time for WWE again ... I mean, he’s done it before, and you don’t fix what’s not broken. So Bad Bunny and Judgment Day is a no-brainer for me.”

Wow, did Damian Priest just tip off the WWE Universe to a huge storyline in the works? Is Bad Bunny the next member of Judgment Day? Could there be another game-changing match coming up at WrestleMania? Who knows, but if all this turns out to be true — don’t forget, you heard it here first.

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