As noted earlier, there were plans for Damian Priest to debut last Friday night on SmackDown but what was planned for him was scrapped.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that the idea was to debut Priest on SmackDown as the best friend of Kevin Owens and they would team up against Jey Uso and Roman Reigns in the main event of the show.
Owens reportedly was willing to go along with the angle but he didn’t think it made sense that Priest would be brought up as his “best friend” since there was nothing they had in common. Reigns reportedly agreed with Owens and the plan was scrapped even though Priest was backstage at the show and ready to make his SmackDown debut.
Meltzer said, “They had decided this idea that we need to make stars on SmackDown…we need new babyface stars. So it’s kind of like somebody asked who can be the next new babyface in NXT that can come on the main roster and the guy was Damian Priest.”
Meltzer continued, “So they had a story where it was supposed to be Damian Priest was Kevin Owens’ best friend and he’s helping him against Roman Reign and Jey Uso. In fact, they were going to do a tag match on the show Friday night and Damian Priest is there and ready and all that and Kevin Owens said essentially that it makes no sense for him to be my best friend, what do we have in common, why would he be my best friend, we can do it but why is he my best friend? So Roman Reigns agreed and since it’s Roman Reigns, it was nixed. I don’t know where Heyman stood on it but it was nixed.”
Meltzer then added that Priest is now expected to be part of Raw later this month but that could change. Typically, they try to get things planned out a few months in advance before a main roster call up but that was not the case this time with Priest. The original plan for him to appear on SmackDown was an idea that they came up with just a few days before the show.
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