WWE star says injuries have led to reduced schedule
Damian Priest says WWE has put him on a reduced schedule due to injuries.
Appearing on actor Nicholas Turturro’s show Delivering Happiness, Priest spoke about having torn his shoulder a couple of times over the past year and a half, along with dealing with knee and back issues. He said he “needs a lot of work done” but is choosing to work through the injuries.
“This past year, I’ve taken a step back. Been banged up a little bit. Kind of giving the bones and joints and ligaments and everything in between a little bit of a break.”
Priest later added:
“The company now this year decided, ‘Let’s take it easy on him,’ because I’ve been going hard for a while. Tore my shoulder a couple times within the last year and a half. My knees are banged up, my back is oof.“
“I need a lot of work done, but I choose to not because if I don’t have to, I won’t. I’ll just figure it out. Let’s do rehab and just keep me in the game coach type of thing.”
He added that WWE has been forcing him to “take it easy,” something he said is not the easiest thing to do.
“This year I think the company was like, ‘We’re happy with you but we need to make sure you’re going to last here.’ So, they’ve been forcing me to take it easy, put it that way. Not the easiest thing to do when you want to just go out there and perform because you love what you do.”
According to Cagematch, Priest has wrestled 24 times so far in 2025, after having wrestled 76 times in 2024.
Priest also revealed during the podcast that the host of the show is actually his uncle. Nicholas Turturro is an Emmy-nominated actor for his work on NYPD Blue and was also the guest ring announcer at WrestleMania XI. Priest and Turturro said they didn’t know they were related until they discovered it together while attending a New York Yankees game.
“This is actually my nephew. We didn’t know. We had to do some research,” Turturro said on the show.
“It was at a Yankees game we realized we were family,” Priest said.
“That was a good night. The Yankees won that night, we didn’t get swept and then you had to get on a plane to Saudi Arabia,” Turturro added.
Priest’s full appearance on his uncle’s show Delivering Happiness is available below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.