Damian Priest

I had a chance to kick it with fellow NuYoRican and current Money in the Bank holder, Damian Priest. We discussed: • The single most important match of his career. • Initial feelings on Edge leaving the Judgment Day. • Most underrated performer on the roster today. • Who he'd love to compete against that he hasn't wrestled yet. • His Favorite tattoo • As a child, the wrestler that impacted him most • Representation among Puerto Ricans in wrestling & more

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And Yo, what up? I'mJosh Martinez of Z one hundred, New
York's number one hit music station,with someone I've been wanting to interview for
a very long time for a litanyof personal reasons. Send you had money
in the bank, Damien Priest wasgood, Bro? How you doing,
Doug Chilling? Chilling? Listen.I've been wanting to an interview for a
while several reasons. One New Yorkrecan not many of us out here in

(00:22):
wrestling, let alone getting into theplatform that you're at right there, at
the edge of being the second PuertoRican World heavyweight champion. What do you
think of something like that? Whatcomes to your mind? Bro? I
get goosebumps. That's I mean,it's highest honors you for in this business,
for representation, you know, forme that that's it's a necessity.

(00:43):
You know. I think where weare right now and what we've accomplished in
the short amount of time, youknow, especially myself, since I've been
here and trying to you know,represent that would be that's dicing in the
cake, and I feel like it'sneeded. I discovered you what I was
living in Dayton, Ohio doing radio. Your name was punishment Martinez and for

(01:03):
obvious reasons, with my last name, Big Martinez. I was like,
I don't even know who this dudeis, but I like him. And
that's the same feeling. That's thesame feeling I had with Savio Egga when
I was younger, right, becausehe was the first dude I saw with
the Puerto Rican flag. And thenyou know, Razor Ramone was really the
first Latino that I saw. Mydumbass had no idea that he was a
white dude from Georgia, right,but I believed him, so did I.

(01:26):
Kid, you don't know what itwas, so you know, and
unfortunately, today's the two year anniversaryof Scott Hall's passing, and I know
that was one of your favorite wrestlers. What was it about Razor Ramone and
Scott Hall that inspired in that coolness, that smoothness, that that confidence that
you know, I mean, itwas the words the Matt cheesemll uh.

(01:49):
I don't know, it was justI was just drawn to that personality,
and like I said, it wasjust so cool to me. And he
played that part really well. That'swhy, like as a kid, I'm
sure adults got it, you know, but as a kid. To me,
he was a Latino, you knowwhat I mean. So I was

(02:10):
I was a big fan, andlike I said, I like, that's
the like I love the Undertaker,right like he was my ultimate hero.
But I was like, but Ikind of like in the street, I'm
gonna act like Razormone, you knowwhat I mean. Like, you know,
I'd walk around like he would andI would do the surf for a
walk and it's it's cool. Igot to do it on TV now,
but it was definitely uh something thatit wasn't for Scott Hold. I don't

(02:34):
know if I'm here, you knowwhat I mean. So it's kind of
cool, that's dope. Yeah,I first time on stage in Madison Square
Garden at Z one hundred jingle Ball, I did the Scott Hall surfer walk.
Is like my little homage to mywrestling fans, because we're all wrestling
fans still to this day, rightas adults, Like that's who we are
at our core. For something likeMadison Square Garden, for something like Barclay
Center performing in New York City,how different is it here compared to everywhere

(02:58):
else on the planet for you personally, for me personally, you know,
it's it's home, right, Sogrowing up going to countless events and Master
Square Garden. Now getting to performthere's a wild and then now the Parkley
Center, which is an amazing arena, and it's right there in the you
know, like it's Brooklyn, likeit's all that New York vibe. It's

(03:20):
different. Like I know as soonas I get there that it's like here
we go, let's go, youknow, Like I love being around my
people, I love being in NewYork, and I'm getting to perform where
you know I started, you know, so it's it always hits a little
harder there. And for whatever reasonwhen I go, like I even get
extra nervous. This is just becauseit's I don't know, it's just extra

(03:44):
pressure. Like I'm home, Igot my family, my friends here,
and you know, it's this iswhere I fell in love and this is
where I convinced myself this is whatI had to do with my life.
So now every time I get togo back, I have to remind myself
of that and like show out hereextra because this is where you fell in
love with this. You know,it's special to me from a personal standpoint,

(04:09):
political standpoint, professional standpoint, wouldyou say, all things considered,
the Bad Buddy match and Backlash wasthe most important match of your career or
is there something else. No,by far, it's the most important thing
that I've done in my career,hands down, what we did as far
as representation, as far as faras putting that our island on the map
again, and not just for us, for Latinos in general, just showing

(04:33):
like, yo, we can dothis, you can we can do pos
all over you know, like everythingany anywhere that's you know, Hispanic or
Latino, like, we can dothis. Like you see the crowd,
you see the emotion. I'm lookingforward to to having more events like this,
Like I would love to do somethingto medical you know there there's obviously
with my buddy Dominic and the fanbase there that's always somewhere, but that's

(04:58):
not doesn't just stop there. Imean, there's a lot of places in
Central and South America that have beenwanting this for a very long time.
And I think Puerto Rico was kindof like, hey, look, we
can do it, you know,and and so I was very proud,
and then on the other side,just proud that I was able to put
on the performance that I did withbet Bunny. You know, he's a
very proud guy, so knowing thatwe got to show out and make our

(05:20):
fans proud of us as well waswas very important. So that was what
what that match Men was way morethan a winner loss. So I'm very
proud. Who would you say isthe most underrated competitor in the locker room
today? Woof, that's rough.It's hard to say underrated when everybody's a

(05:42):
superstar, you know what I mean? Like you're in WW because you're you're
part of the best. That's howthat works. But oh, that that
really is rough because there's so much, so many good talent that they're not
let's say right here, but theirtalent is there. So I'm gonna keep
it easy and biased. I'll gowith my own crew. I think Dominic

(06:04):
is underrated. I think Dominic peoplesee him as the guy that was fun
to boot him, and then hegets in the ring and I think he
kind of like they're like, oh, where did that come from. It's
like, no, he's good.He's really good. And I think people
forget that because they just know theguy that gets booed because it's fun to
boot. Him, and you forgetthat he can go into the ring and

(06:25):
he's very talented, he's his improvement. And since he's joined the Judgment Day,
I mean, if you look atDominic a week before he joined the
Judgment Day and you look at himnow, it's completely different person. And
I think people forget about that parttoo. So speaking of completely different things,
obviously, the original iteration of JudgmentDay with Edge was I guess one
idea and then you know, comparingto what he said and interviews since he's

(06:48):
left, compared to what it isnow. Were you nervous when Edge kind
of left Judgment Day and this kindof evolution of Judgment Day kind of started?
Well, yeah, of course,because it went from one person's vision
to what should we do? Guys? You know, so there was a
little bit of nervousness of well,how do we decide what direction? What

(07:11):
should we do? Where should wego? Like how should we handle this?
So yeah, so we didn't know, and I think we all kind
of felt like, we're not sureif this is going to work now and
it turns out to be the bestthing we did. Yeah, No,
listen, you guys are the hottestthing in wrestling. Right now. And
that's not on accident, you knowwhat I'm saying. I had I had
fans submit questions. So this comesfrom Willy because clearly we all have to

(07:34):
know at least one perto Rican namedWillie. What is your favorite tattoo and
why? Hm? Well, myback piece because it took the long as
it hurt the most, but ithad has a lot of just all the
things that the dark and weird andall that stuff that I like. It

(07:58):
has like a combination of things weknow, the the Grim Reaper, flames
and sky and the whole thing isinside of skull with crossbones. I just
thought like the detail and just thethought process that came into it, and
like I said, different things thatI liked, and I was like,
well I like this and I'd liketo show this out this way and that
way. And then having this isa giant piece on my back that was

(08:18):
definitely for me. I guess thatwould be the one who is someone you
would like to work with today,whether they're even in w W or not
that you get excited when you thinkabout it, but just haven't yet.
I mean the rockets back. Butseriously, man, right now, because

(08:41):
I'm that focus. Ww right,I've never squared up with Roman, so
that's that's always that's always in theback of my head. You know,
I'm like, huh, we've nevernever touched nothing, so that that I'd
be lying if I didn't say Ihaven't thought of that. If only you
had some sort of purple accessory tomake that happen, Cornel man, if

(09:03):
only, yeah, if only,and if only you know, he was
around more often and held us onsmack down more often. But time time
will tell, you know, LikeI, look, I'm not going anywhere,
he's not going anywhere. Well,well, we're gonna square up at
some point, so I look forwardto that quick game of this or that.
I'm gonna just give you two things. You got to pick one of
the other, right, yellow riceor white rice? Yellow Benlai Ben Yankees

(09:33):
are Mets Yankees? Bro had aboy? Had a boy? Jets are
Giants? Giants Nicks or Nets Rockor Austin Rock, Felix Trinidad or Miguel
Coto. That's not cool. That'snot cool. That's the hardest question you've

(09:56):
asked that. I'm not gonnat evenanswer that. Man. Now, you
got to think of this one makessense. Scott Hall or Razor, Ramone,
Raser, Mark, Anthony Hector,Daddy Yankee or bad Bunny. I
can't pick bad Bunny. That's theway he did to me. So what

(10:22):
would you say is your most aswe get into WrestleMania season? The go
home show for WrestleMania, the goHome Ros excuse me, April first,
Barclay Center tickets are on sale rightnow. You guys have had consecutive TV
sellouts. The hottest product in allof sports entertainment right now is WWE leading
into WrestleMania. What is your favoriteWrestleMania moment as a fan? Not one
that you participated in middle as afan oof moment, uh, because I

(10:50):
have matches, but a moment whichthe moment is the same thing as the
moment at the end, Man Baker, Sean and Triple Ah standing on that
stage together that moment, like,I was like, man, this is
what I grew up on. Thesewere the guys that were these were my
heroes, just them on that stage, kind of like the last Dance type

(11:13):
of thing. I was just like, down't hit me that that would be
my favorite moment. What was yourfavorite match growing up as a kid.
As a kid, you know,you don't know what's good or not.
You just like stuff and you likeyour your favorites. But my favorite match
that I remember was Show Michaels wasChris Jericho at WrestleMania. I just loved

(11:37):
the story behind them. And thenas I got older, obviously Undertaker original
Show Michael's twenty five was my alltime favorite. It's to this day,
it's my old time favorite match.I had everything you would want in this
industry, and that's as closest toperfect, if that's even a word they
could use in this business that youcan get love that match. Same,
by the way, that's mine aswell. Before we wrap things up,

(11:58):
this is called the Superstar Crossover.So my last guest has a question for
you, what's the next step?What's the next step in your career?
It's because it's all we're always lookingto do a little bit more more than
we did last year. What's thenext step for you? Well, it's
kind of obvious with the briefcase,but you know, I just want to

(12:20):
I just want more. I justwant to achieve more. I just want
to keep building, you know,this resume and keep representation going. You
know, that that's the next stepis just be better tomorrow than I was
today. I love that. What'syour question for our next guests? It
could be, by the way,anybody from Ring of Honor in New Japan,
aw or even in your own lockerroom. You know what's uh,

(12:46):
why do you do this? Whydo you do this? Why do you
do this me? Because I wasborn for this. I I literally there's
nothing in this world that I couldsee myself doing anymore. I love every
second of this and the emotion Iget from the crowd, the support I
get from from you know, fromlet's say, my heritage, the representation,

(13:11):
the platform I have to to createand to inspire, you know,
with my story. And you know, if I made it, literally,
if I can make it, justabout anybody can. You know, you
just got to put in that work. So that's that's why I do it
one more time. Damian Price,appreciate you stopping by, bro My pleasure, dude,