Damian Priest On Triple H Running WWE Creative: 'He's Going To Succeed'

A day nobody saw coming happened last week when Vince McMahon announced his retirement from WWE after spending 40+ years as the company's CEO and head of creative. It was truly a "where were you when" moment, one of the biggest stories in the history of the wrestling business — and likely prompted by the ongoing investigation into hush money payments McMahon made to former WWE employees who accused him of misconduct.

"For me, it's super cool that I'm a part of that, it's a moment that nobody thought was ever going to happen," said current WWE star Damian Priest during an interview with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman ahead of this weekend's WWE SummerSlam. "It's cool that I'm working in the company when it happened, I'm here during history. So it's cool. I know where I was when he announced he was retiring ... I was in the WWE."

McMahon had been the head of WWE creative since before the company took the "F" for Federation out of its name and replaced it with an "E" for Entertainment. Filling those enormous shoes will be Paul Levesque, fka Triple H, who spent time in a similar role with "NXT," where he was the founder and Executive Producer of WWE's third brand.

"He's going to knock it out of the park," said Priest, who, as a former "NXT" North American Champion, worked under Levesque. "He's going to succeed. He's a wizard when it comes to this business, I look forward to seeing him succeed and being a part of the process with him."

Priest will be competing at this weekend's WWE SummerSlam premium live event, teaming with his Judgment Day partner, Finn Balor, to take on the father-son duo of Rey and Dominik Mysterio in a No Disqualification match.