Damian Priest has looked back on his WrestleMania war and how he was able to secure Slayer guitarist Kerry King to play him to the ring.
Competing in the second match on night 2 of the show, Priest faced off against Drew McIntyre in a Sin City Street Fight. The 14-minute match was fast-paced and saw both men use tables, chairs and steel stairs to attempt to put the other away. The end of the match saw McIntyre hit a Claymore onto Priest into a chair to pick up the victory.
Speaking with Denise Salcedo after the match, Priest was happy with their performance while also addressing some fans being more critical of their rivalry heading into the show:
“The match (at WrestleMania against Drew McIntyre), I thought we delivered. I thought for a WrestleMania match with the time we were given, we did our thing and look, our rivalry, I don’t care what anybody says, it has reason, it has story and it was heated and we had our beef and uh, you know, we went at it. We went hard too, which is what I was expecting. I know he was expecting it too and I think we had a performance worthy of a WrestleMania match and that being my first full singles match, I’m proud as hell.”
H/t to POST Wrestling.
Damian Priest Talks Slayer Entrance
One of the select few to be given a special entrance over WrestleMania weekend, Priest was played to the ring by Kerry King of Slayer, who also plays on the former World Champion’s theme Rise For The Night. In the same interview, Priest recalled how the entrance was made possible:
“They said, yeah, ‘King, Slayer and they’re going to he’s going to play out to the ring.’ I was like, ‘no shot. All right, guys, take it easy’, and they’re like,’ no, no, no’. Then, funny enough, it was Blue Meanie that had hit me up. This is like probably over a month ago. He saw him (Kerry King) at a concert and he said, ‘yeah, I talked to King and he said he’d love to play you to the ring.’
I took that as an opportunity to go to Hunter and be like, ‘hey, man. So I was talking to Blue Meanie and he said King would love to play. I just wanted to put that on the table. Just sayin’. But then just left it at that, and then I hear that I’m going to host the Slayer reunion, their first headlining tour and they’re coming back together and performing a few shows and I’m going to be the host of that show and the emcee of the thing. I’m like, this is crazy work.
I legit got nervous when they said that to me because I was like, ‘oh, my God, what am I going to say?’ I’m going to embarrass myself on stage. I’m going to be a little boy fan and then from that, it was like, ‘hey, this might happen.’ I was like, ‘no shot’. Then when they finally said it’s happening, I was like, oh, my God. I got more nervous about that than the match just because, that’s what I’ve been a fan of.
I love the pageantry of what we do, the entrances, the music, the characters. That’s what I fell in love with the business. It wasn’t just the wrestling. So the idea that this happened, I was nervous because I was like, please let it be really good and I don’t know. I think it was pretty cool.”
H/t to Fightful.
Damian Priest will also serve as the special host for a Slayer concert later in the year.