Damian Priest has revealed WWE forced him onto a reduced schedule in 2025 due to a series of injury issues.
The former Judgement Day star has only wrestled 24 WWE matches in 2025 with just nine of those taking place in the last six months.
This is well below the 76 matches Priest had in 2024 where he reigned as world heavyweight champion for for 191 days and even less than the 100 matches he had in 2023.
Speaking on the Prince St Pizza show, Priest explained that he has multiple injuries he’s avoiding getting surgery on.
“It’s unfortunate, and I don’t like to bring it up too much. I don’t take breaks. Since I’ve been in WWE, I’ve literally taken zero days off. I’ve never asked for time off because I was hurting,” Priest explained.
“This year, though, the company decided, ‘Let’s take it easy on him,’ because I’ve been going hard for a long time. I’ve torn my shoulder a couple of 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 not to do it. If I don’t have to, I won’t.
“Instead, I figure it out. We do rehab, and it’s a ‘keep me in the game, coach’ type of thing. That’s what we’ve been doing for a while now.
“But this year, I think the company said, ‘Okay, 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.
“And that’s not the easiest thing to do when you just want to go out there and perform, because you love what you do. I’m still on TV regularly—just not in the ring as much as I’d like to be.
“That’s really the only downside. I love performing, man. I love getting physical. So it’s hard for me.”
Priest had a stellar run in the Judgement Day that has launched Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio into different stratospheres.
He won the Money in the Bank briefcase in London back in 2023 and Senor would cash in the following WrestleMania.
His title run was OK, but he hasn’t been able to reach the heights of his aforementioned team-mates, though he remains a popular performer in WWE.
The days of 250 shows a year are gone in WWE and at 43-years-old with plenty of miles on his tires, it’s certainly not a bad idea for WWE to take care of one of their elite big men.
