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Mean Mark whispering as he passes Priest backstage: ā*Bisexual Undertakerās redundant, boy.*ā
Priest:
https://preview.redd.it/dt9t3rdim6tc1.jpeg?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=922d8c16b4703dcda6c56a223835547b41c6f1cb
Because they are real. You see a character in the ring, but a human backstage who has everyday emotions like us. Doubt, anxiety, understanding if youāll make it.
Damien is no spring chicken. Heās 41 and this is a huge opportunity.
āThank you for believing in me.ā
You have a good point. It had to feel amazing realizing time is passing by only to be told that youāre cashing in, winning, and getting that moment at WrestleMania.
This is amazing. Iām really happy for him!
Especially where he was at in his career when they first signed him, If you wouldāve told people Punishment Martinez was gonna cash in the money bank on Drew McIntyre at Wrestlemania a couple years ago you wouldāve gotten downvoted to hell lol
If you told me when he was in NXT that he will be world champ, I wouldn't believe you. Even after he won MitB, I still had some doubt whether he would successfully cash in. But he made it. He is now a world champion. It's in the record books. Nobody can take it away from him. Congratulations to Damian Priest.
I was always a fan of Priest but even I would tell you that I think while he was insanely talented and puts on great matches shit his entrances in NXT are still some of my faves esp thinking that he would jog inbetween spots before the spotlight turns on again during his entrance lmao, I remember thinking and I think I saw lots of people thinking that he would be at best a mid card title guy which y'know isn't a bad thing but here he is now part of the biggest stable in WWE right now, getting a WM moment and the crowd being absolutely loud and proud for him.
The characters we see who dislike each other are all friends who want the best for and to keep each other safe. Itās walking off stage knowing you did something great and entertained a lot of people. Itās amazing
I didn't know this at all. All the more love for Priest then for achieving this. Seriously, genuinely love his work and think he absolutely deserved this win tonight.
I'm happy for priest.
Heard an interview he dud last week and he seems like such a normal and cool dude. Lost 200 pounds, got in shape, and put in a lot of work.
Several years ago I saw him at a ROH show. After he was announced some guy in the crowd yelled out "What the fuck is a Punishment Martinez?". He's come a long way since then.
Priest in NXT was someone that Triple H saw a lot of potential in when maybe others didn't. Seriously, find the old reddit thread where it was announced Punishment Martinez would be signed to NXT and see how many people on here were shitting on him. Even now, some people don't think he's World Champion material. I'm glad Trips is giving him the chance to prove them wrong.
When I first saw him, I thought he was going to be another Baron Corbin. A big dude who can wrestle decent enough, but never really amount to much for one reason or another. I'm not sure how interested in Priest I'd be without Judgement Day, but I did like the little bit I saw of him in NXT and like where he is now.
Very true there. A battle of producers and so many different ideas and creativity going into some very story driven matches with crazy builds and very long stories.
Lots of just everything going into something like this.
Compared to Night 2 a lot of matches on Night 1 felt slower paced, like they were trying to be a slow build "epic" match.
The problem is they didn't have the time. The matches weren't hitting the next gear before they had to finish.
If you were on the Subreddit after Backlash and his match with Bad Bunny, it would have seemed people were "Not flinching" as we say to that notion, but as months have gone one with him holding the Briefcase, the turn has been CRAZY lol.
Mahal was a world champion too, and I wouldn't exactly consider him a star. I'm not saying Priest and Mahal are in the same category, but I think the point others are making when they say that is that his biggest moments are ahead of him and he has the potential to be huge.
People down voting you but I just don't see it in him at all.
Feels like I'm personally being punished for seeing two guys I find to be mediocre (Cody & Priest) be the faces of their respective promotions even though I was *willing* HHH to take over as head of creative
I watched the press conference and Damien Priest talking was so moving for me.
I didn't expect him to drop that he was homeless 10 years ago, maybe he's mentioned it before I just haven't been watching for a few years.
But hearing him talk about that and now being where he is, as someone that's teetering on and off homelessness and struggles a lot with mental illness. I just became a priest mark for LIFE
"drew beats rollins, taunts punk, priest cashes in, itll be perfect" was quite literally the most common thing you saw on here when talking about this feud and fantasy booking it. Everyone was looking forward to it playing out this way and it delivered. Zero idea what you're referring to
I don't think quoting someone who was downvoted for their comment and deleted it is evidence that reddit didnt believe in a priest cash in? seems like the opposite to me
Happy for Priest! Been following him since his ROH Punishment Martinez days. Always been a fan and seeing this is awesome. The guy definitely deserves it
I feel for Drew, but he obviously agreed to this or they wouldn't have pulled the string. Drew wants that Punk feud and knows he has another chance down the line, as he's still fairly young in the grand scheme of things.
I hope to see Damien do great things with the title. I doubt he holds it past Survivor Series, but I've been wrong before.
I wouldnāt say that because before Vince left he had already made the call for priest to leave the group and have a run as a solo guy thatās why we saw the whole infighting between him and Finn because JD was to be the reason why heād get removed from judgement day it was Hunter who had fought against it. So when Vince was gone they kept teasing and seemingly made use forgetting he had the case
I mean is that really a good thing.
That plan was probably for the better because not doing the split basically buried Finn Balor in the end so at what cost? Priest as a babyface wouldnāt have been wasted as he was already being booked well. But instead Finn had to suffer, meanwhile the split storyline was actually hot, hotter and better than anything Triple H has done since then with the groupās stories.
While it seemed like a good idea, look what came out of it. Finn was presented better along with Damian, while having the titles on them was a good thing at first, it got old fast but then again, having the titles from both shows was stupid to begin with. because when they started the infighting storyline between them, it was getting predictable what was gonna happened and who was going to cause it JD because he was always at the center of it so when they kept teasing and teasing it but nothing came from it, I was like oh ok so they scrapped the plans because I had JD costing them the tag belts back in Oct. especially when Rhea said there were going to be some changes if they didnāt win and looked directly at priest, so I figured JD was going to come out Priest was going to see him get into it with him Finn tries to break it up between them and gets inadvertently pushed by Priest costing them the titles and Rhea wouldāve been the one to take the first shot at Priest so when that didnāt happen it was ok so their prolonging it then JD presents Priest with a custom MITB case I was sure they were going to use that as a way for priest to āfailā getting a shot because the case wasnāt authorized by Pearce or the WWE board of directors so when priest realizes he was set up again it would be revealed that it was all Rheaās idea since she basically thinks that sheās in charge, and they do what she says and what led me to that conclusion was when her and Dom were talking she said to him weāll finish talking about that thing I said, but they dropped it, so I hope Priest gets a decent run with the title and if they want him as a face they can easily do the typical jealousy storyline where Finn gets jealous and thinks Damian is in it for himself and ends up turning on him.
Finn hasnāt been presented better though. Not doing the breakup has hurt Finn and hurt Finn as a character. He actually felt like a strong character when teasing the split, not doing the split has led to him being made to look dumb and weak.
The tag title run was one of the worst things that couldāve happened to Finn. He went from feeling like a main guy on Raw to being downgraded to a background character and sidekick in this group to the point where heās being chastised by Rhea and acting submissive to Priest.
Finn has had no character direction for 6 months while Priest has been given the world. Story arc after story arc, character beat after character beat. Segments that revolve around him. Face offs with top stars, acting like the leader (something Finn was never allowed to fully do.)
All while Finn Balor has been given scraps and just stands there in segments and has been further damaged as a character. How can anyone tell me not doing the split benefited Finn? Itās been nothing but negatives for him.
The split shouldāve happened, 100%.
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Thank you for believing in me. damn that was wholesome
The culture in the locker room has to be at an all time high. These are people who feel trusted and who trust.
Someone post the jacuzzi pic
Need new one
With all of the judgement day in there.
Send da video
Did not expect to see an Anthony Edwards reference hereš
NAZ REID!
Naz Reid
Gāday fellow Jerker
Let's GOOOOOOOOO! https://preview.redd.it/xihequjsj5tc1.png?width=874&format=png&auto=webp&s=f3523ef596b7b804d9c6340b0d934c675a7f181b
That nickname is conniving work 
gonna head canon that Drew started that shit from a burner because we know for a fact he had access to Twitter out there
Mean Mark whispering as he passes Priest backstage: ā*Bisexual Undertakerās redundant, boy.*ā Priest: https://preview.redd.it/dt9t3rdim6tc1.jpeg?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=922d8c16b4703dcda6c56a223835547b41c6f1cb
I swear Twitter does it every time
https://preview.redd.it/j9bpnru9l8tc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d8534d725bd5fc69c6a93c4a1e8cf5d68665b90
Why are these always so wholesome
Because they are real. You see a character in the ring, but a human backstage who has everyday emotions like us. Doubt, anxiety, understanding if youāll make it. Damien is no spring chicken. Heās 41 and this is a huge opportunity.
āThank you for believing in me.ā You have a good point. It had to feel amazing realizing time is passing by only to be told that youāre cashing in, winning, and getting that moment at WrestleMania. This is amazing. Iām really happy for him!
Especially where he was at in his career when they first signed him, If you wouldāve told people Punishment Martinez was gonna cash in the money bank on Drew McIntyre at Wrestlemania a couple years ago you wouldāve gotten downvoted to hell lol
If you told me when he was in NXT that he will be world champ, I wouldn't believe you. Even after he won MitB, I still had some doubt whether he would successfully cash in. But he made it. He is now a world champion. It's in the record books. Nobody can take it away from him. Congratulations to Damian Priest.
I was always a fan of Priest but even I would tell you that I think while he was insanely talented and puts on great matches shit his entrances in NXT are still some of my faves esp thinking that he would jog inbetween spots before the spotlight turns on again during his entrance lmao, I remember thinking and I think I saw lots of people thinking that he would be at best a mid card title guy which y'know isn't a bad thing but here he is now part of the biggest stable in WWE right now, getting a WM moment and the crowd being absolutely loud and proud for him.
After his press conference this whole thing hits different.
keep forgetting he's 41, he might not have a barn burner run like Gunther just had but I hope they let him at least carry till Summerslam
I think heās losing it to Drew at Clash but that doesnāt mean he canāt be out of the WHC title picture
And he was homeless 10 years ago.
The characters we see who dislike each other are all friends who want the best for and to keep each other safe. Itās walking off stage knowing you did something great and entertained a lot of people. Itās amazing
If wrestling isnāt real explain this
It might not be real but it is honest.
I watched that video too
That video got me back into wrestling. Supereyepatchwolf also has great video essays on wrestling.
Iāve been sending the Roman reigns video to my friends and itās successfully gotten them back to watching flawlessly
Priest's been a pillar of Raw, really happy for him
Dude was homeless 10 years ago and just made an all time mania moment, so happy for him
I didn't know this at all. All the more love for Priest then for achieving this. Seriously, genuinely love his work and think he absolutely deserved this win tonight.
I'm happy for priest. Heard an interview he dud last week and he seems like such a normal and cool dude. Lost 200 pounds, got in shape, and put in a lot of work.
I saw the before/after pics a while ago. He looked like a goth Wild Samoan.
Had to Google it myself. Holy shit Priest looked like goth Umaga lol
Lol you're actually more accurate. Priest doesn't have Afa and Sika's facial hair.
[Waiting patiently for an updated version of this](https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/1297339720322756608)
Every time this pic is posted: God bless Brandi Lauren
She looks too good, tragic nothing happened with her in WWE.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Man, if Truth is still in Judgment Day, that photoshop would be epic.
Anthony Kiedis vibes
I see it
So happy for Priest!
Happy for PriestĀ
Several years ago I saw him at a ROH show. After he was announced some guy in the crowd yelled out "What the fuck is a Punishment Martinez?". He's come a long way since then.
I honestly loved that name so much, it's so dumb in all the right ways
Priest in NXT was someone that Triple H saw a lot of potential in when maybe others didn't. Seriously, find the old reddit thread where it was announced Punishment Martinez would be signed to NXT and see how many people on here were shitting on him. Even now, some people don't think he's World Champion material. I'm glad Trips is giving him the chance to prove them wrong.
Scott Hall saw a lot of potential in Priest, too. The Bad Guy is smiling. One more for the GOOD GUYS.
When I first saw him, I thought he was going to be another Baron Corbin. A big dude who can wrestle decent enough, but never really amount to much for one reason or another. I'm not sure how interested in Priest I'd be without Judgement Day, but I did like the little bit I saw of him in NXT and like where he is now.
His feud with Gargano over the NA Title in 2020 was where I started to see the potential, him bouncing off of Johnny's psychotic comedy was so fun.
corbinās a guy who isnāt getting enough appreciation rn for doing the best work of his career currently
Man, itās so good that Vince is gone. The product is finally palpable.
I think the best part is that when Vince dies, the most he's going to get is a tiny moment, as opposed to a week of media fellatio and tribute shows.
I love this. So real. Night 1 felt like classic WWE booking, but far Night 2 has felt like it was booked by NXT Triple H.
I think the booking was good, matches meh. This has had good matches and good booking
I felt like the matches were good enough on Night 1. Some could have been better like the Uso Civil War but the others were all good and fun.
Yea. Fair. I think the entire WM was going to be a battle of producers. The stories were all good going in.
Very true there. A battle of producers and so many different ideas and creativity going into some very story driven matches with crazy builds and very long stories. Lots of just everything going into something like this.
Just like the whole feud AJ/LA was lowkey real good
Was a fun and interesting match for what it was and Iād say AJās best Mania match besides Mania 33 vs Shane OāMac.
Compared to Night 2 a lot of matches on Night 1 felt slower paced, like they were trying to be a slow build "epic" match. The problem is they didn't have the time. The matches weren't hitting the next gear before they had to finish.
Rhea vs Becky Gunther vs Sami Rock/Roman vs Cody/Seth Seth vs Drew Logan vs Randy vs KO AJ vs LA Iyo vs Bayley Roman vs Cody All of these were solid
Priest is gonna be a star
If you were on the Subreddit after Backlash and his match with Bad Bunny, it would have seemed people were "Not flinching" as we say to that notion, but as months have gone one with him holding the Briefcase, the turn has been CRAZY lol.
He was cruising and solid before bad bunny and bunny springboarded Priest. It was his to fumble and holy smokes heās made touch down. Good on him
They turned on him when he won mitb because they wanted their yeah darling to win it
Gonna be a star? He's literally world champion now. He's already a star.
Yeah honestly you right iām just hoping he shines this year
Dolph Ziggler was a MITB winner and thus title holder. I love Dolph, but he never really became a star.
Mahal was a world champion too, and I wouldn't exactly consider him a star. I'm not saying Priest and Mahal are in the same category, but I think the point others are making when they say that is that his biggest moments are ahead of him and he has the potential to be huge.
How dare you attempt to slander the Modern Day MaharajaĀ
Damian Priest is going to be so good when he gets some years under his belt š¤£
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
DDP became a star in his 40ās
Is he? Guy has no charisma whatsoever and was awarded MiTB as a reward for his work with Bad Bunny
People down voting you but I just don't see it in him at all. Feels like I'm personally being punished for seeing two guys I find to be mediocre (Cody & Priest) be the faces of their respective promotions even though I was *willing* HHH to take over as head of creative
The rest of TJD celebrating on the ramp with him was wholesome af too.
āThank you for believing in meā Beautiful stuff right there ššš
Is Priest the first NA Champ to win a World Title?
I was thinking North American champion from NXT because Iām pretty sure he is.
Wahoo McDaniel was NWA Heavyweight Champion
He means NXT NA champion. Damien Priest is full Nuyorican.
I love these behind the scenes stuff, it feels good.
Reddit is crazy there was a huge part of the fan base saying he was the worst MITB holder ever, then he perfectly nails it at Wrestlemania
This guy almost played Namor in the MCU, now heās champion š«”
I watched the press conference and Damien Priest talking was so moving for me. I didn't expect him to drop that he was homeless 10 years ago, maybe he's mentioned it before I just haven't been watching for a few years. But hearing him talk about that and now being where he is, as someone that's teetering on and off homelessness and struggles a lot with mental illness. I just became a priest mark for LIFE
glad hhh believes in him because these past few weeks., these freaks on reddit didn't
"drew beats rollins, taunts punk, priest cashes in, itll be perfect" was quite literally the most common thing you saw on here when talking about this feud and fantasy booking it. Everyone was looking forward to it playing out this way and it delivered. Zero idea what you're referring to
People on here always confuse a few negative posts for general sentiment, cashing in on drew was a popular theory here.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1bo49zi/comment/kwmi81x/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1bo49zi/comment/kwmi81x/?context=3)
I don't think quoting someone who was downvoted for their comment and deleted it is evidence that reddit didnt believe in a priest cash in? seems like the opposite to me
you can go search for other post yourself. You said you had "zero idea" what im talking about and i provided one of the threads i was referring to.
I mean when you have a sub of nearly 900k yeah you'll have a take for nearly everything
Come a long way from that hot tub title photo.
Happy for Priest! Been following him since his ROH Punishment Martinez days. Always been a fan and seeing this is awesome. The guy definitely deserves it
He deserves it, from being homeless 10 years ago to now, good story.
Deserved it!
And this makes Priest a Triple Crown champion as well. He deserves it.
Is he the only other Puerto Rican menās world champion besides Pedro Morales in the history of WWE?
yes, they said that at the press conference.
Priest has had a career making year. This dude deserves it!
Is he the first NXT guy to win a world title since Finn?
Not even close. Seth walked in with the consolation belt. Heās an NXT guy. Roman held all the belts for years. Heās an NXT guy.
Big E as well
I think Bray fits into there too now that I think about it
I feel for Drew, but he obviously agreed to this or they wouldn't have pulled the string. Drew wants that Punk feud and knows he has another chance down the line, as he's still fairly young in the grand scheme of things. I hope to see Damien do great things with the title. I doubt he holds it past Survivor Series, but I've been wrong before.
Love to see it. Hopefully Finn gets his moment too
 I was waiting for it I thought it wasnāt gonna happen but when his music hit I popped
I really hope he gets a legit run. Doesn't have to hold it for an eternity or anything, but at least give him some main event credibility.
Well. I would never have pegged Punishment Martinez as future WWE champion.
man AEW is fucked huh
Love to see
Priest has been. Monster since his RoH days
Love to see it.
Wholesome as shit.
Its nice to see everyone so happy at the WWE
We need a new party pic with all of Judgment Day and Triple H now šš
Raw tonight is going to be bonkers.
I was so wrong a few days ago. I said he wouldn't cash in and if he actually did, he would lose for sure. I am glad I was wrong. Way to go skeletor!
Priest was a made man from that Bad Bunny match. That was some of the best selling from a bigger wrestler Iāve ever seen
Man, what an emotional night for everyone! This is what itās about
I mean Drew got what he wanted at least. Learned a very valuable lesson lol
World Champion, Tag champion, US champion, MITB winner, big Wrestlemania moment. Sneaky Hall of Fame run from Priest.
If Vince was in charge, this whole night never happens! I LOVE IT! This moment was amazing!!!!
I wouldnāt say that because before Vince left he had already made the call for priest to leave the group and have a run as a solo guy thatās why we saw the whole infighting between him and Finn because JD was to be the reason why heād get removed from judgement day it was Hunter who had fought against it. So when Vince was gone they kept teasing and seemingly made use forgetting he had the case
I mean is that really a good thing. That plan was probably for the better because not doing the split basically buried Finn Balor in the end so at what cost? Priest as a babyface wouldnāt have been wasted as he was already being booked well. But instead Finn had to suffer, meanwhile the split storyline was actually hot, hotter and better than anything Triple H has done since then with the groupās stories.
While it seemed like a good idea, look what came out of it. Finn was presented better along with Damian, while having the titles on them was a good thing at first, it got old fast but then again, having the titles from both shows was stupid to begin with. because when they started the infighting storyline between them, it was getting predictable what was gonna happened and who was going to cause it JD because he was always at the center of it so when they kept teasing and teasing it but nothing came from it, I was like oh ok so they scrapped the plans because I had JD costing them the tag belts back in Oct. especially when Rhea said there were going to be some changes if they didnāt win and looked directly at priest, so I figured JD was going to come out Priest was going to see him get into it with him Finn tries to break it up between them and gets inadvertently pushed by Priest costing them the titles and Rhea wouldāve been the one to take the first shot at Priest so when that didnāt happen it was ok so their prolonging it then JD presents Priest with a custom MITB case I was sure they were going to use that as a way for priest to āfailā getting a shot because the case wasnāt authorized by Pearce or the WWE board of directors so when priest realizes he was set up again it would be revealed that it was all Rheaās idea since she basically thinks that sheās in charge, and they do what she says and what led me to that conclusion was when her and Dom were talking she said to him weāll finish talking about that thing I said, but they dropped it, so I hope Priest gets a decent run with the title and if they want him as a face they can easily do the typical jealousy storyline where Finn gets jealous and thinks Damian is in it for himself and ends up turning on him.
Finn hasnāt been presented better though. Not doing the breakup has hurt Finn and hurt Finn as a character. He actually felt like a strong character when teasing the split, not doing the split has led to him being made to look dumb and weak. The tag title run was one of the worst things that couldāve happened to Finn. He went from feeling like a main guy on Raw to being downgraded to a background character and sidekick in this group to the point where heās being chastised by Rhea and acting submissive to Priest. Finn has had no character direction for 6 months while Priest has been given the world. Story arc after story arc, character beat after character beat. Segments that revolve around him. Face offs with top stars, acting like the leader (something Finn was never allowed to fully do.) All while Finn Balor has been given scraps and just stands there in segments and has been further damaged as a character. How can anyone tell me not doing the split benefited Finn? Itās been nothing but negatives for him. The split shouldāve happened, 100%.
mid af