WWE Star Damian Priest Explains Why He Stopped Using The Reckoning As Finisher

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As far as main roster runs go for those coming from "WWE NXT," there aren't too many who have enjoyed greater success and a rise to prominence like that of Damian Priest. From being a part of Edge's original incarnation of The Judgment Day, to taking it over eventually, winning the World Heavyweight Championship, and now feuding, alongside Rhea Ripley, with the latest version of their former group, Priest has had a phenomenal ride. 

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But he has had to make changes along the way, starting with changing his finisher when Cody Rhodes returned to WWE. Appearing on "Insight," Priest was asked by host Chris Van Vliet how the conversation with the office went when Rhodes was on his way back, as his former finisher The Reckoning is similar to Cross Rhodes. 

"Actually, they didn't say you can't do it anymore," he explained. "I do it differently but it's one of those things. They're like, 'You might wanna ...' but they never said, 'Change it,'" Priest added. 

He added Rhodes himself also believed there was no need for him to eliminate the move from his repertoire. Priest, though, realized that if he and Rhodes were executing similar finisher moves, the audience might be thrown for a bit of a loop. He expounded that both moves are just variations of a Rolling Cutter. 

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"If [Rhodes comes] back, and I'm doing this move, every time I hit it, people are gonna think of [him],'"  he said. "He has his own twist, the way he hooks the arms and twists back and forth. I would do it more with taking my arm out and spinning underneath, but at the end of the day, it's a Rolling Cutter, right?" 

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Damian Priest said he had no problem going back to the South of Heaven chokeslam, The Razor's Edge, or the Flatliner, all at the ready in his arsenal. But when the time comes, if he and Rhodes square off, he'll be more than ready to dust off his old version of the maneuver.

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"Basically, anytime I face Cody, I'm gonna hit him with it," Priest said.

Priest also sees a deeper evolution to his moveset down the road, teasing submissions as a part of his offensive at any time now.  "I [haven't] even started doing submissions yet, [of] which I got a few," he said. "And I have a different version of a Gogoplata," he added, invoking a move used by one of his wrestling heroes, The Undertaker. 

Priest sees the move away from his former finisher as unimportant and understands the benefit of differentiating from another major superstar like Cody Rhodes.

"It's one thing paying homage to somebody," he explained. "It's one thing doing a similar move to somebody who works somewhere else. But when they're working in the same company, on the same show, there's gotta be a difference."

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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.