In the just-concluded "Royal War", I believe that many wrestling fans have left a very deep impression on a certain player. I was impressed by a player from the NXT brand, Damian Priest, who eliminated the most people in this year's Battle Royale!
And in yesterday's RAW show, Damian Priest also officially landed on the main show, and defeated the current contract Ladder Mr. and former WWE champion Miz (the miz) that night...
So this week's "Introduction to The Underdog Players", let's get to know this Damian Priest from "Dark He Rundong".
Damian Priest, whose real name is Luis Martinez, was born on September 26, 1982 in the Puerto Rican Diaspora of New York. Although born in New York, he returned to Puerto Rico with his parents shortly after his birth.
As a child, Priest saw WWF's show on TV by chance and became interested in it. It also happened that his father happened to be a martial artist who was proficient in Japanese karate, so Priest began to accept his father's training.
In high school, Priest won the National Martial Arts Championship in Puerto Rico twice, but he always had a firm dream in his heart: to become a professional wrestler.
At the age of 18, Priest watched wwf live for the first time and was lucky enough to meet the undertaker at the meeting.
Last year, the mourners announced their retirement, and Damian Priest also revealed a secret on Twitter:
"You may not remember me, but I want you to know that it was your words that made me firm in my belief in becoming a wrestler." Without you, there would be no Damien Priest, thank you, I will always remember you. ”
In 2010, Priest trained at monster factory wrestling camps and won multiple championships. This bootcamp works with a lot of the slightly more famous wrestling leagues, including roh, tna, njpw, etc., and they dig up a group of young wrestlers and send them to these leagues to develop.
As a result, Damian Priest was quickly sent to the Roh Wrestling League, which was also known as the "third largest wrestling league in the United States", and made his debut in 2015 with "Luis Martinez" as the ring name.
Shortly after his debut, Roh repackaged him and gave him a resounding ring name: "Punisher" Martinez.
During Roh's performance, he also unexpectedly secured a contract for NJPW. In the 2017 "Rise of Glory: Japan" competition, Martinez partnered with Hiromon Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito to successfully defeat three contestants from the NJPW, and among those who were defeated by Martinez was the famous "Five-Star Monkey" Hiroshi Tanabashi!
Later, Martinez also launched a charge against the never indiscriminate weight champion, but failed. Soon after, he returned to the Roh Wrestling League...
On June 16, 2018, Martinez successfully defeated Silas Young to get his first championship belt in ROH: the World Television Championship. And until the end of his contract with Roh, he didn't lose the title.
Martinez, who had long been famous, was finally discovered by WWE, and on October 12, 2018, the two sides signed a contract, and 6 days later, he debuted on the NXT show.
After coming to NXT and earning the ring name "Damian Priest", he had played wonderful matches with excellent wrestlers such as Keith Lee and Dominique Dejakovic...
At the 2019 Survival of the Strong, Priest represented the nxt brand, participated in the traditional 15-player knockout match of the three brands, and was eventually eliminated by "viper" Randy Orton.
One of the games that really made Priest famous took place on May 13, 2020, when he had a fierce match against Finn Bálor, who had just been devolved from the NXT brand. Although he finally lost the game, he was also appreciated by many wrestling fans, and was called by HHH (Triple H): WWE's next future star!
In NXT Takeover: 30, Priest overpowered Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream to become the new nxt North American champion...
Post has since lost his title to Johnny Gargano; in nxt: New Year's Devil special weekly show, Priest confronts Karian Kroos and loses, which is his last appearance on NXT's show.
What happened after that is known to everyone, And Priest's fame in "Royale Wars" and officially came to the main show.
Some say Priest's wrestling style is a great fit for WWE, and yes, he's WWE Chairman Vince Mcmahon's favorite "big guy" wrestler. On this basis, he is also very good at flying high, which is also HHH's favorite type of wrestler.
In the triple threat match against Keith Lee and Dominique Dejakovic, Priest, whose reputation was slightly inferior to the other two, had a very bright performance. He showed his high-flying skills in the game even better, and even in front of Keith Lee, who has the reputation of "the most flying fat man in the beautiful wrestling", he will not look inferior.
Due to learning karate from an early age, Priest also has a deep knowledge of leg attack...
In terms of finishing skills, for a while, he used the Falcon Arrow as his final skill; later he also used Raymond's classic razor bomb fall as the final technique; but in yesterday's raw show, he played the "neck smash" as the final skill, which was also the "Rhodes Whirlwind" that Cody Rhodes was previously proud of.
In addition, Priest is also very good at microphones, and his character development is also very successful, how can such a player not be reused by the company?
In the eyes of Chinese wrestling fans, Damian Priest and our well-known actor He Rundong look very similar, so many domestic wrestling fans have also given Priest the nickname of "Dark He Rundong" and "Puerto Rican Step".
Can't say a bit like it, can only say exactly the same...
Although he was excavated very late, And Now Priest is 39 years old, there are still many wrestlers who regard him as one of the "successors of the mourners". We are also looking forward to Damian Priest playing more exciting games at WWE.