Damien should debut on the main roster any time now after New Year’s because Mr. McMahon wants to create a new babyface star on the main roster
According to multiple reports, Damian Priest was scheduled to debut on SmackDown on New Year’s Day in the main event segment with Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns and get involved in that storyline as Kevin Owens’ friend, but it was scrapped at the last minute. Dave Meltzer claimed on Wrestling Observer Radio that Reigns and Owens were at least partially responsible for the angle being scrapped. Reigns feels there is no point in adding a “random person to the main event mix.” Priest well likely be headed to RAW instead.
Meltzer stated, “WWE had decided this idea that we need to make stars on SmackDown… we need new babyface stars. It’s kind of like somebody asked, who can be the next new babyface in NXT that can come on the main roster,” and the guy was Damian Priest. So they had a story where Damian Priest was supposed to be Kevin Owens’ best friend (similar to how Chris Jericho was back in 2016 – 2017) and he’s helping him against Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. In fact, they were going to do a tag match on the show Friday night and Damian Priest is there and Randy and all that. Kevin Owens said essentially that it makes no sense for him to be my best friend, what do we have in common, why would he be my best friend, we can do it but why is he my best friend? Roman Reigns agreed and since it’s Roman Reigns, it was nixed. I don’t know where Heyman stood on it but, it was nixed.”
It is encouraging to see that Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens were treated, at least in this scenario, so leniently and were given some form of creative freedom. No superstar has ever had that level of pull regarding creative direction aside from Stone Cold Steve Austin (who earned the trust of the boss many times over throughout the years. He orchestrated his own heel turn in 2001. It was not as successful as he predicted, but it was a massive step in terms of earning Mr. McMahon’s trust).
Regardless of this situation surrounding Damian Priest, he likely participated in his final NXT match at the New Year’s Evil event in which he took a loss and put over Karrion Kross. This match had a similar feel to Matt Riddle’s final match in NXT in June when he made his departure by putting over Timothy Thatcher. Based on this result, Priest might be expected to make his debut on the main roster.