LA Knight And Damian Priest Are Ready To Win Big At WWE’s ‘Money In The Bank’ 2023

Armon Sadler
·7 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Every year, WWE superstars literally climb the ladder of success. The Money In The Bank ladder match is an exciting bout where the winner—who secures a briefcase hanging above the ring—earns a contract that guarantees a world championship match at any time they choose for the next year. As seen through the stories of Edge, Seth Rollins, Bayley, Liv Morgan, CM Punk, The Miz, and more, this briefcase can shift the trajectory of one’s career if they cash in the contract and win a world title.

The Money In The Bank ladder match has become such a WWE staple that it went from an annual match at Wrestlemania to its own premium live event. LA Knight and Damian Priest are two of the seven men who will compete on Saturday (July 1) at WWE’s Money In The Bank in London. While the two may have the same goal, they couldn’t be more different.

LA Knight is a “bad guy” the fans love; he oozes charisma, talks a big game, and backs it up in the ring—even if his methods for victory trend toward being underhanded.

During a recent episode of Monday Night Raw, Knight told his MITB opponents Ricochet and Shinsuke Nakamura that they were “as useless as basketball cleats.” The crowd laughed at the statement’s accuracy and obscurity. “You ever tried to run on a basketball court with some cleats?” Knight asked when the comment was brought up. “It’s pretty rough.” As for how he comes up with his quips, he revels in the ability to think quickly on his feet. “I just think of something that’s really useless. I don’t know, man. If there were more guys in the ring, I’d have more to say, but, at the time, it was just using what was in front of me and going from there. Just talking my talk.”

This particular trash-talking segment began with popular social media personality Logan Paul, who announced that he was entering the Money In The Bank ladder match. One by one, each competitor came out to speak their mind about the revelation. Damian Priest was noticeably absent, but admits he’s unbothered by the self-proclaimed “Maverick” joining the fray.

“There’s another victim in the match,” he said calmly. “Everybody was out there wildin’ because of what he said. I was just getting ready to main-event Monday Night RAW. I’m not sweating anybody else in the match. For me, it’s an opportunity for me to grab that briefcase and be in another main event. This time, [I’ll] win a world title. That’s what I’m focused on.”

Another commonality between LA Knight and Damian Priest is that they both earned their first WWE championships by winning ladder matches for development brand NXT. Priest gets the slight edge however; he won a five-man ladder match for the NXT North American Championship at TakeOver: XXX in August 2020. Knight’s victory was a one-on-one ladder match against Cameron Grimes for the Million Dollar Championship at TakeOver: In Your House in June 2021. “Oh, it sounds like I got a little bit of an advantage, doesn’t it?” Priest noted with a smirk. The two agreed that their preparation for the upcoming match hasn’t changed.

“I went into that first ladder match [focused on being] extra in tune with my surroundings,” Priest recalled. “Be ready for anything to come flying my way and ready to protect myself. I mean there’s six other people in the match, seven total, so it’s going to be unpredictable regardless. There’s really no rhyme or reason of how to prepare. There’s no such thing as training for a ladder match. I’m one-for-one in ladder matches here, so I’d like to make it two-for-two.”

LA Knight agreed about protecting himself. “You got to keep your head on a swivel,” he said. He also threw a shot at the high-flying superstars in the match who may be more focused on creating moments. “At the same time, it’s trying to keep myself out of doing anything incredibly stupid,” Knight said.  “A lot of these guys are going to try and do some big stunts like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do something extreme and cool and memorable.’ The only thing memorable I’m trying to do is hold that case at the end of the thing.”

Both of these men have fans pulling for them to come out on top, as arguably two of the fastest-rising WWE superstars of 2023. Priest is a member of The Judgment Day alongside Finn Balor, Rey Mysterio’s son Dominik Mysterio, and the WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley. He was also part of one of the most viral wrestling moments of the year: facing Bad Bunny in a San Juan Street Fight at WWE Backlash back in May. While he did not come out of the match victorious, Priest takes pride in the status he has reached through hard work and a stronger sense of self.

“I was actually talking to Paul Heyman about this,” Priest said in response to what’s changed for him in 2023. “I’m no longer acting like I’m a certain way; I’m just being a certain way. It’s almost like I found myself or my voice. I just feel a different level of comfort now. And I’m not even saying that I wasn’t comfortable before, but right now I feel at ease with everything. I can just be Damian Priest.”

LA Knight did some soul-searching of his own. While he built a large fanbase as his current character during his tenure in NXT, he was rebranded into a high-end fashion agent named Max Dupri upon joining the Smackdown roster in 2022. That character lasted a few months before he reverted back to LA Knight.

“I’ve got no damn business being here, because, in a lot of ways, going from that to this, that’s a big albatross around the neck,” Knight said bluntly about the character change. “That’s a big weight right there to overcome, but somehow, in a short amount of time–well, except for you bringing it up now–most people have forgotten about it. That’s pretty damn good. I’d say that’s a testament to, hell, I don’t know what, but something somehow, and I’ve made it work.”

Gathering his thoughts a bit more, LA arrived at the fact that his current character is true to himself. “I think that what it comes down to, is one of those was much more authentically me than the other. I can’t say what makes people gravitate toward that. I can only guess. My best guess is just that they’re seeing that this is more me.”

Knight and Priest both carry a certain swagger, which naturally made music an important topic of discussion. Knight’s theme music has a Hip-Hop bounce, and that was purely by design. “I was basically telling them, ‘I want a good mix of rock and rap, in a certain sense, as far as the way it feels,’” he says in the midst of raving about West Coast Hip-Hop, Jay-Z and Drake as his go-to’s within his eclectic music palate. “Trying to get all that together and getting the drums and all that kind of stuff, it just has the right feel to where that gets me pumped and ready to go. Yeah, Hip-Hop is it.”

Priest listens to a wide array of music as well, though it’s more due to his “JD Roadtrips” with his faction members. “If I’m driving, I’ll start off playing some rock or something,” Priest began. “And then [Dominik Mysterio] will start putting on Hip-Hop, but he’ll also play his authentic Mexican music. And then he’ll try to play country and we stop him.”

In the end, while the two shared laughs and jokes, there was still a palpable focus on their goal. The hope is that the right track will put them on course to navigate the chaotic ladder match, secure the briefcase, and become part of WWE history. At this point, it’s truly just a matter of whether it will be LA Knight, Damian Priest, or one of the other five men who will join them in the squared circle come July 1.

More from VIBE.com

Best of VIBE.com

Click here to read the full article.