Damian Priest was walking around WWE with the Money in the Bank briefcase, Judgment Day behind him and a massive push in front of him — but there was apparently one pretty important thing missing. His WWE contract had expired.
Sean Ross Sapp dropped that bomb during a Fightful Select Q&A while breaking down how WWE’s contract process changed during the TKO era. The conversation centered around former WWE executive Dan Ventrelle and how several talent deals were allowed to get dangerously close to the finish line.
Sapp explained that while WWE appeared to like Ventrelle, some wrestlers weren’t exactly thrilled with the way he handled talent negotiations. There were also complaints that certain wrestlers felt their value to WWE was being minimized.
“What I know happened during the Dan Ventrelli era was he had, first off, there were a couple wrestlers that just didn’t, weren’t keen on him, didn’t, didn’t like the way that he handled things. WWE seemed to like him. Like, I didn’t hear of a lot of people in the company that didn’t like him, but it was definitely a situation where some of the wrestlers felt like he would minimize some of their contributions and some of their, their importance to the company. That’s, that’s what a lot of the things that I heard from back then were.”
Then came Priest. Sapp said some WWE deals were allowed to either get extremely close to expiration or actually expire, and Priest was apparently one of the craziest examples.
“And I remembered specifically some of the issues around that were they, that he let a few deals get really close to Expiring or did expire. I, I’m pretty sure Damian Priest was among them. Damian Priest had got money in the bank and had money in the bank briefcase and his contract actually expired while he held the money in the bank briefcase.”
That doesn’t mean Priest was halfway out the door looking for the nearest AEW contract. Sapp made it clear that Priest was already buried deep inside one of WWE’s biggest storylines and the company obviously had major plans for him.
“Now I don’t think that he was going to go anywhere else. He was, you know, in the middle of a big push and was a part of Judgment Day and obviously they had some semblance of main event plans for him because you know, that’s where he went.”
Those plans weren’t exactly subtle either. Priest had the Money in the Bank briefcase and eventually used it to become World Heavyweight Champion, so WWE clearly wasn’t treating him like a guy they were preparing to lose.
“He had the money in the bank briefcase and he became world champion and all that stuff and did a lot of cool stuff.”
The insane part was that things ever got that close in the first place. Sapp said people weren’t happy that WWE allowed Priest’s contract situation to reach the point where a wrestler carrying one of the company’s biggest storyline weapons was technically out of time on his deal.
“But the fact that it got that far didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Like they felt like that deal should have been done well ahead of time and he definitely did wait until it got down to the wire for a lot of wrestlers and that’s just not the way that they wanted to do business then.”
Sapp added that WWE’s negotiating process has continued to evolve since then. The company will still take some deals close to the wire, but its approach to getting extensions done has shifted.
“They do sometimes now and now they renegotiate and do stuff like that.”
Ringside News previously covered Priest signing a fresh multi-year WWE contract, with the negotiations coming together extremely late in the process. Priest ultimately stayed exactly where WWE wanted him and went on to turn that Money in the Bank briefcase into the World Heavyweight Championship.
The whole thing looks even crazier in hindsight. WWE had Priest positioned for the biggest run of his career, yet his contract paperwork was apparently cutting things so close that the deal actually expired while he was still carrying the briefcase.
What do you think about WWE allowing Damian Priest’s contract to expire while he was still Mr. Money in the Bank? Sound off in the comments and let us know if you think WWE was playing with fire by letting things get that close.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
