How I would Book: Damian Priest on the main roster

Former NXT North American champion Damian Priest has emerged in the past year as one of the more popular superstars on the NXT roster. As either a heel or a face he is a throwback to the cool characters of the 90’s, like Razor Ramon, and has the potential to be a fantastic upper mid-card act on the main roster.

Damian Priest’s arc seems to be coming to an end with NXT, especially with the title picture so saturated. A call-up to the main roster beckons, and as speculation grows as to when and how he makes his mark on either Monday or Friday nights, I make my pitch as to what to do with the Archer of Infamy.

End of the line with NXT

So far we have been treated to two very entertaining clashes between Priest and Gargano, the feud should end on a trilogy, which should continue until the next Takeover event. It is scheduled that at NXT Takeover 32: Damian Priest vs Johnny Gargano, winner gets their shot at the NXT North American championship.

For the contract signing both competitors have the choice of picking one stipulation each, Damian Priest chooses that the match be a steel cage match, ensuring that no one can get involved. And Gargano reveals that the stipulation he has picked is that while the winner goes for the belt, the loser will leave NXT.

At NXT Takeover the match should be the opener. The finish should come in the form of a big spot off of the cage like for example our Heel attempting escape the cage one last time, Priest should climb up the cage with Gargano and they can exchange slugs before Priest’s brawling advantage comes out on top, as he looks for an impact move off of the cage down onto the floor Gargano makes use of his wrestling experience for a reversal to send his crashing, landing on him for the 1-2-3.

Priest loses, the loser leaves NXT. In one final match against Gargano, his last chapter in NXT has been written.

Main Roster debut

We have to cast ourselves back to Survivor Series. Team Raw vs Smackdown. We have Keith Lee in the ring with Jey Uso in the latter stages of the match. A stray superkick from Jey will see the ref dropped to the ground and as the battle spills outside, Uso leaps into the limitless one with a suicide dive, sending Keith Lee into the barricade and the sneeze glass. We see a dark figure emerge from the PC recruits hooded and masked up and leap the broken barrier and target Lee with a nightstick to the throat (For NXT fans, a call back to their feud) this will leave Lee incapacitated and unable to answer the count of 10. On the following Raw the finger can be pointed at Retribution for the attack.

T-Bar can answer the call and we can see the two behemoths have an impromptu match (NXT fans rejoice as Dominik Dijakovic vs Keith Lee happens on the main roster). After a good showing from T-Bar the Spirit bomb proves to be too much for him and the 1-2-3 occurs.

Once the Raw storyline has caught up with NXT, with the belief being that Keith Lee was attacked by Retribution still, we can have Raw open with Keith Lee demanding details on the attacker’s identity. The answer comes on the Titantron, with the masked attacker answering the call. Our attacker can explain their motives, clearly being the way Keith Lee was treated like a big deal when he left NXT, given a huge opportunity even in defeat to Kross. Daman Priest reveals himself as the mystery attacker, debuting on the main roster as a heel.

Due to the fact that Damian Priest is not under contract with Raw we can see the match agreed on the next Monday Night Raw to be an unsanctioned match with the stipulation set that if Priest wins, he will be given a contract with Raw, and if Keith Lee wins, Priest can never step foot in a WWE building again.

Have him beat Keith Lee at TLC using the nightstick and getting the 1-2-3. Stand on the ramp, Raw contract in one hand and nightstick in the other.

But what do you think? How would you book Priest’s debut on the main roster? Don’t forget to check out the rest of our wrestling content here at DailyDDT and keep up to date with the latest news.