Damian Priest competed in his first-ever ladder match at NXT TakeOver XXX and he went to a king of the ladder match for advice.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Priest discussed the conversation he had with Edge prior to TakeOver XXX.
"This was my first-ever ladder match, so I made sure I did my homework,” said Priest. “A big part of that was reaching out to people who have been in ladder matches, and I spoke with Edge for an hour about it. For me, the main thing I took out of our conversation was that the match was not going to play out the way I thought it would. And he was right, because that’s exactly what happened. Very little happened the way I thought it would, but I was able to adapt. And he told me to stay in the moment, and that stuck with me, too.”
Edge wasn't the only veteran Priest has gotten advice from in recent months. As reported by Fightful in February, Undertaker was at the Performance Center and Priest discussed learning from The Deadman.
“This isn’t on the Network or part of his documentary, but he came back to the Performance Center again and I got to work out in the ring with him, and I learned so much,” said Priest. “Ring positioning, look, awareness, being overly aware of your surroundings, he makes it all look easy. It might sound simple, but he has this gift of making sure everything he does means something. I really gained a lot from him.”
All the advice over the past couple of months worked for Priest as he walked away with the NXT North American Championship at TakeOver XXX.
If you missed anything from Wednesday's NXT, check out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
