12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

6. Priest Overcomes The Odds

Damian Priest
WWE.com

WWE’s track record with new talent is far from reliable. In fact, it’s downright terrible. So the fact that Damian Priest closed out 2021 as the United States Championship without being pinned in a singles match this year is remarkable.

Priest debuted in the Royal Rumble and never looked back, partnering with Bad Bunny for a few months and even competing in a tag match at WrestleMania 37 with him. Afterward, he languished a bit before finding his footing in a feud with Sheamus that culminated in Priest winning the US title at SummerSlam. Damian has done the open challenge gimmick since then, which has worked out decently for him.

Not content to let a good thing go untweaked, WWE decided to scrap his unique entrance music for a more generic rocker and change his persona into one of a guy with two halves, the good side (Priest) and a devil (Damian). Tick him off, and the demon comes out and Damian can’t control himself, even getting DQ’d in matches.

If WWE continues down this path, we could very well see Priest in the “downs” column for 2022. But overall, his first year on the main roster has to be rated a success.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.