Damian Priest: Triple H Told Me I’d Make More Money By Being Myself

Damian Priest recalls Triple H having to tell him he needed to feel more comfortable being himself on camera. Today, Priest is a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and one of the top stars on the roster. However, he needed some encouragement to get there.
Damian Priest has been afforded the opportunity to work closely with Triple H in both NXT and on the main roster. In both settings, he says Triple H has had to remind him to let loose on camera.
Speaking with WFAN, Damian Priest revealed that the advice initially came from Triple H back when he was in NXT. Hunter even told him that Undertaker had to give him the same advice. Priest says it clicked after a match he had in NXT with Finn Balor. Then, he found himself needing another pep talk when he moved up to the main roster. He was trying to be what he believed others wanted to see from him.
“It was what I thought they wanted me to be. I remember my boss, Triple H, came up to me one day. He was like, ‘The day you stop trying to pretend to be you and you’re just you, you’re gonna make a lot of money in this business.’ He goes, ‘Undertaker told me the same advice. I know it’s weird, right? Because how’s somebody telling you how to be yourself, that you’re not being yourself? You know you, but one day, it’ll click.’ Sure enough, one day, it just did,” he said. “I remember I was in a match in NXT with Finn Balor, and that was the first time that I felt that it clicked. Then, I got called up to the main roster.
“Somehow I ended up going down that road again of trying to be what everybody wanted me to be. Same thing again. Triple H just being like, ‘You’re like, tense. You’re holding back. Just let loose. Who cares?’ He goes, ‘I’d rather tell when you get back to the curtain, ‘Hey, relax, don’t do that, or you’re going too far.’ Then tell you, ‘Hey, man, I need more from you. The moment he said that, it was another one of those things of, ‘Okay.’ Obviously, it helps when you have your friends around you. Being in the Judgment Day, helped my confidence a lot. Just having them in the ring with me, whether I was talking or just in a match, I just fed off of them, and then it was just this calm and smoothness that I just started to feel, and that was a game changer.”
Damian Priest is in the middle of his first run on WWE SmackDown. He recently started a rivalry with the returning Aleister Black.
Fans can check out the full interview embedded at the top of this page. The interview was promoting WWE SummerSlam, coming to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. SummerSlam will take place across two nights for the first time ever on August 2 and 3. Check out the full card for the event here.
Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with an H/T linking back to this article.