Former AEW star shares emotional Damian Priest story following gut-wrenching WWE SummerSlam betrayal
Before his in-ring debut in 2005, WWE's Damian Priest honed his craft at the legendary Monster Factory training school, a facility that has seen names such as Paul 'Big Show' Wight and the late Bam Bam Bigelow pass through. Former AEW star QT Marshall, another Monster Factory alumni, has now commented on coming up in the business with Priest.
Since attending the Monster Factory school, Priest has gone on to become a top star in WWE, recently holding the World Heavyweight Championship. Priest lost the world title to Gunther this past weekend at WWE SummerSlam 2024 after being betrayed by his fellow Judgment Day stablemate, Finn Balor.
Although not currently working for the same promotion, Marshall, who departed AEW at the end of 2023 as an on-screen star, provided some insight into training alongside Priest and the pair's relationship during a recent appearance on Keepin' it 100.
"He had started [training] a year before me, right? You know how wrestling schools are; you just go to the school and you get in the ring with whoever. He [Damian Priest] was one of the people who was always there … I started going back to the Monster Factory, and him and I got really close. He started paying attention, like, ‘Hey, dude, you should probably get in better shape. You could actually do something with this.’ … He’s one of my best friends," QT Marshall said. [1:50 onwards]
It should be noted that since his departure from AEW, he has reportedly returned to the company but is not active as an on-screen star and is only there as the Vice President of Show and Creative Coordination.
WWE's Damian Priest has faced and teamed with QT Marshall on the independent circuit
Between 2013 and 2017, Priest and Marshall crossed paths various times in the ring, mainly on the Monster Factory wrestling school's live shows.
They battled over the MFPW World Heavyweight Championship before forming a tag team partnership. The duo, known as Gifted Punishment, eventually captured the MFPW Tag Team Championship.
Despite losing the World Heavyweight Championship in controversial circumstances this past weekend at SummerSlam, the future is still bright for Priest, with or without Judgment Day by his side - with WWE's Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque claiming that Priest has proven a lot of people wrong with his world title run.