In a recent episode of the podcast, “The Pat McAfee Show”, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the CCO of WWE, opened up about his backstage response to Damian Priest’s frightening tumble during the WWE Clash at the Castle: Scotland event earlier this month.
In what fans are considering as a terrifying incident, Priest unexpectedly tripped over the ropes and fell awkwardly, leaving his ankle ensnared between the ropes and leaving him hanging in the air for a brief period.
Providing a vivid description of the incident, Triple H expressed, “Damian Priest attempts to leap over the top rope, but he slips. When he slips, he loses by just a quarter inch, half-inch, and then his foot slips off the rope. His ankle becomes entangled in the top rope and suddenly, he’s hanging upside-down by just one leg. It appeared as if he had seriously harmed himself, as if everything might have been torn or the joint had snapped. [At this point, the clip is projected on the screen for reference] We have the means to communicate with referees and on seeing that, which was broadcast live, I felt a rush of panic thinking, ‘It’s possible we’ve got a show-ender here. We’ll need to scramble to pull him out and then he’ll need to be carried out on a strecher.’ My mind raced with contingency plans for this situation. We asked if he was alright. To our surprise, after a few seconds he assured us he was fine. I couldn’t believe it. He repeated again he was unharmed. So then he manages to get up and I can see him asserting that he’s completely fine when asked again. I processed it as perhaps it’s adreneline. But it turned out that he was perfectly fine, unscathed. These kinds of incidents do occur often. So the nerve-racking aspect comes not only from the performance itself, but also the concern for the performers’ safety, hoping they complete the event securely and in one piece, as that is our main priority.”
In another turn of the event, Drew McIntyre was thwarted by CM Punk, which gave Priest the opportunity to retain his WWE World Heavyweight Championship during the WWE Clash at the Castle: Scotland.