Kevin Owens Details Bizarre Scrapped WWE Plans That Also Included Damian Priest

Kevin Owens has recalled a strange WWE pitch he turned down that also featured Damian Priest.

The 2021 Royal Rumble was the most unique iteration of the event in its 38-year history. This is because the event occurred in front of no fans due to restrictions in place as a result of the COVID pandemic.

One of the matches on the show saw Owens unsuccessfully challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship in a last man standing match. With Reigns also having backup from The Bloodline at this point, Owens almost had an ally of his own in the form of the former World Heavyweight Champion.

While speaking with Cody Rhodes on his What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast, Owens spoke about his feud with The Bloodline and being pitched Priest as a best friend, which the former Universal Champion rejected:

“They [WWE] tried to make me friends with Damian Priest on television. [How did it go?] I refused. So in 2021 it was the pandemic era. I was embroiled in a feud with Roman Reigns. It was the beginning of a 4-year nightmare that would just not stop for me. When it started, we were wrestling in empty buildings, we had the weird screens there. You missed that time. Right when we were going to be having the blowoff match, the last man standing match at Royal Rumble, which turned out to be everyone’s favourite match that we had. About 3 weeks before, I’m thinking we are firing on all cylinders, we’re going to the Royal Rumble, big match, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. Then I’m at television and they tell me, ‘Well, things are kind of changing now. You’re going to be introducing your new best friend to help you take on The Bloodline because of the numbers game.’ I’m like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ They go, ‘Do you know Damian Priest from NXT?’ I go, ‘The guy who has the fake arrows? Yes.’ I go, ‘Well I have nothing against him, but no one would believe that we are best friends. We could not be more opposite, and why? It’s so random.'”

Kevin Owens Says Damian Priest Nearly Faced Roman Reigns

Owens also added that it was also pitched that Priest would have faced Reigns at the Rumble instead of him, much to his anger:

“It turns out somebody threw this idea out there, and it stuck for 5 minutes until I said no, I don’t want to be friends with him on TV. Maybe in real life, but let’s start somewhere. But yeah, it got killed. He was gonna take my match! It was gonna be him vs. Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. I was insensed, I said no. But for what it’s worth, I didn’t derail his career; he debuted on the main roster like 2 weeks later.”

Rhodes brought up that some people in wrestling will say yes to anything, while others are more selective over what they agree to, which Rhodes stated he admired that quality in performers. Continuing, Owens explained his logic behind turning some ideas down.

“To me, it just comes down to whether I think the audience would be insulted by it. I don’t think the audience would have been insulted byb the concept of me and him being friends. But at that time, NXT had been around, people were aware of NXT enough to know he’s been in NXT, I used to be in NXT. We never had any sort of interaction, never in our lives were we [together]. It would just be so random. It was one thing if they told me you’re going to bring him in as your backup, you saw him in NXT and he impressed you. But no [they said], He has to be your best friend. Also, I spent years, TV wise, screwing every friend that I had. So why would I just introduce this random best friend. So anyway, I just didn’t like it, I think it was sh*t.”

Concluding the story, Owens stated that he has nothing against Priest at all, but them becoming onscreen best friends would not have worked:

“I love him, great guy. But just him and me, it doesn’t work.”

Owens has a point when it comes to his former best friends, as Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn and Randy Orton are just some of the names KO has betrayed while in WWE.