Real Reason Top WWE Star Changed Finisher Revealed

Published: Sep 9, 2024 by Sanchez Taylor | Last Updated: Sep 10, 2024 by Sanchez Taylor

Sanchez has over six years of pro-wrestling news writing experience, covering the biggest news stories in WWE, NXT, AEW, TNA Wrestling and more. He has personally interviewed a number of top stars, producing exclusive content with the likes of AEW's Swerve Strickland and WWE's Nick Aldis.

WWE

Damian Priest has revealed the real reason why he changed his finisher, explaining why he adopted a new move as his main signature maneuver.

The South of Heaven chokeslam is currently the most dangerous weapon in Damian Priest’s moveset, with the former Judgment Day member even using it to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

Fans will remember that prior to adopting this as his finisher, Priest would win matches with his “Reckoning” rolling cutter, which looked like a variation of Cody Rhodes’ Cross Rhodes.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Priest noted that he did change his finisher because it looked similar to Rhodes’, but noted that he wasn’t forced to make the change.

Explaining why he updated his moveset, Priest said:

“That was pretty much the conversation. Actually, they didn’t say you can’t do it anymore. It was like a conversation of look, obviously, it’s a similar move, it’s different, but it’s still similar. I do it differently, but it’s one of those things. They’re like, you might want to [change it], but they never said change it.

“Even Cody was like, You don’t have to change it. I was like, Yeah, but if you come back and I’m doing this move every time I hit it, people are gonna think of you. But at the end of the day, it is a rolling cutter, right? So I was okay with it. So basically, anytime I face Cody, I’m gonna hit him with it (laughs).

“But look, it’s a move. It’s not that serious. I think everybody else thinks it’s more serious than we do. I really didn’t care. I was like, Okay, I’ll just go back to using the South of Heaven or Razor’s Edge or the flat liner that I do. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to use. I haven’t even started using submissions yet, and I’ve got a few! That’s what I mean, there’s a lot of stuff that we can do.

“I wasn’t mad, I wasn’t upset, I just didn’t want everyone to think of him every time that I did a move. It’s one thing paying homage to somebody, it’s one thing to do a move similar to someone who works somewhere else, but when they work in the same company, on the same show, it’s like alright, there’s got to be a difference.”

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Transcription via Chris Van Vliet.

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