Bryan Danielson Wanted Damian Priest To Debut Against Roman Reigns In WWE ThunderDome
Bryan Danielson discusses an idea he had to bring Damian Priest to the WWE Friday Night SmackDown roster for a feud with Roman Reigns during the global pandemic. He also reveals how Vince McMahon manipulated crowd reactions during the shows filmed in the WWE ThunderDome.
The global pandemic forced WWE to think outside the box and record events in Florida stadiums with virtual screens, allowing for a virtual audience. The experience, known as the WWE ThunderDome, allowed WWE to continue presenting its top-of-the-line pomp and circumstance during uncertain times in society.
This time coincided with Bryan Danielson’s brief time on the WWE creative team. Danielson was briefly part of the creative team for WWE Friday Night SmackDown and helped facilitate aspects such as Big E’s singles push.
Speaking on Downunder the Ring, Danielson revealed that he had an idea to bring Damian Priest up from NXT to the SmackDown roster. Danielson’s idea was to have Priest confront Roman Reigns, highlighting the size of the Puerto Rican WWE Superstar. He also reflected on the crowd manipulation tactics being utilized during that era.
Bryan Danielson claims he witnessed Vince McMahon manipulating the crowd noise to favor certain wrestlers. While he questioned why you would ever want to lessen the crowd reaction for anyone on the roster, he felt there was a chance to make a top star out of Priest.
“I had pitched this really hard… We were doing the ThunderDome in Tampa. He was living in Orlando. I thought, like, let’s debut Damian Priest right now. Let’s have him come in. Because he’s tall, he looks like a star, all this kind of stuff. Let’s debut him against Roman, not in a match, but in [a segment], and then let’s hit — because I saw, I saw Vince do this. It was really weird. He was like, ‘I want the crowd noise louder for a certain wrestler, I want it louder.’ Then, other guys were out there, and he goes, ‘That’s too loud. Quieter.’ I was like, ‘Why would you ever make it quieter? ‘
“So let’s have Damian Priest go out there and let’s hit that noise button. Bring him out, bring him right up, because he looks like a star. He’s taller than Roman. Roman, at that time, was super dominant. It was just a fascinating time period in wrestling. I could geek out about it for a long time.”
Danielson recently reflected on the differences between WWE and AEW. Read those comments here.
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