Priest Denies Edge Rumor; Ric Flair Talks Last Match; Danielson on ‘Perfect’ WWE Exit

Edge (FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)

Bleacher Report catches you up on the
latest news from the WWE Universe.

Damian Priest Denies Edge Exit
Speculation

Edge formed The Judgment Day in April
with Priest joining the faction followed by Rhea Ripley, but
the Hall of Famer departed as the group’s leader just two months
later, replaced by Finn Balor.

In July, Fightful Select reported (via
Rosanne Raphael of SportsKeeda) the exit was in part due to creative differences about the stable’s potential move toward a “supernatural” concept.

Priest told Stephanie Chase of Digital
Spy on Friday there wasn’t any truth to that rumor because everybody
involved agreed that wasn’t the right route to take:

“I guess I understand why people
thought that. I don’t know where the actual rumor came from that
that’s what was planned, because it never was. If anything, we had conversations
of how we didn’t want that, and that included Vince [McMahon]
himself, who did not want the group to be supernatural-based. We were
all in agreement.

“We did some things that seemed
that way, I know I did a thing with lightning one night, and the idea
wasn’t about supernatural, but it came off that way and then we
immediately went, ‘OK, let’s not revisit that because it came off
that way.'”

Priest, who said he wouldn’t have been
against more of a supernatural theme, believes people merely jumped
to conclusions because Edge was involved in some unique factions in
the past, including The Brood.

“Naturally, when you involve
somebody like Edge and we’re on the darker side, it’s gonna be, I
guess, assumed and hinted at, like, ‘Maybe this is a thing.’ But no,
that was never part of it,” he told Chase.

After a brief hiatus, Edge returned to
WWE at SummerSlam last month when he helped The Mysterios in their
match against the Balor-led Judgment Day.

Ric Flair Says He Blacked Out During
Final Match

Flair teamed with Andrade El Idolo to
beat Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett in July as part of an event billed
as his last match.

The 73-year-old wrestling legend
received mixed reviews for his performance, which came
after workout videos showing his preparations for the show went viral
on social media.

There are some moments from the night,
including the match’s final sequence, that aren’t so clear in Flair’s
memory, however, which he explained on his To Be The Man podcast (via
H. Jenkins of Ringside News):

“The idea was he gave me the tag and
I crawled. But I got all that, and the people got all that. I thought
they were really with it. I crawl over, cover, one, save. Then at
that point, along came the guitar. You know, bingo. When I was down,
I passed out again. I just passed out, and Manny is going ‘Sir, you
have to wake up.’ I had the brass knuckles. ‘Sir, you have to wake
up.’ Okay, so then I woke up and I knew where we were and we’re home.
But I swear to God, twice during the match, I went completely black.”

Flair took a some bumps and ended up
bloodied by the end of the match. Nobody should have expected a
5-star classic given his age and physical limitations, but he
deserves credit for getting himself in good enough shape to put on
one last show.

It marked a unique end to a Hall of
Fame career.

Bryan Danielson Discusses Last WWE
Match

Danielson has often said his final
WrestleMania match in 2021, a triple-threat encounter won by Roman
Reigns that also featured Edge, didn’t carry a lot of personal
meaning.

That wasn’t his last WWE match, though.
He was in the company for another few weeks and wrapped up his tenure
with a loss to Reigns, which meant he’d be banned from
SmackDown for life as part of the storyline

Danielson, known as Daniel Bryan during
his WWE run, explained on the My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox
podcast (via Dakota Cohen of Wrestling Inc.) he enjoyed that sendoff:

“The one unique experience at
WrestleMania where it was just like, ‘Woah, this feels empty.’ …
Ironically, my last match in WWE with Roman, I was pumped for. I
loved it, and it was in the Thunderdome. It was a bunch of screams
and canned-down noises and stuff, and I was, ‘This is great! I love
this,’ and like, I honestly thought that’s a perfect way to go out.”

Danielson went on to join AEW in
September and has since served as one of the company’s top stars.

While the latter stages of his WWE
career couldn’t match the remarkable highs of his victory in the main
event of WrestleMania XXX in 2014, he still provided some terrific
matches after he returned to the ring from injury in 2018.

His final match against Reigns fits in
that category, and clearly Danielson feels the same way.