Bad Bunny missed out when he was a ten-year-old boy the only time his beloved WWE visited his native Puerto Rico.
Yet 18 years later the three-time Grammy winning musician will be the star attraction for WWE’s return to the island.
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WWE
Hear the full interview on talkSPORT’s talkWRESTLING podcast, available on your Fight Night Podcast feed.
Among his many achievements, Bunny is the first non-English language act to be Spotify’s most streamed artist of the year.
The now-29-year-old has topped the audio streaming platform’s yearly streams for the past three years ahead of Taylor Swift and Drake, with his music boasting 18.5 billion plays in 2022.
But Bunny is no stranger to beating established names, having featured in the best celebrity match in WWE history ahead of Tyson Fury, Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather upon his in-ring debut.
The rapper impressed after joining forces with Damian Priest at WrestleMania 37 in a tag match against The Miz and John Morrison.
Priest revealed to talkSPORT’s talkWRESTLING podcast, that will be available to listen to in full above, that he wasn’t surprised by Bunny’s display.
He told talkSPORT: “The way he picked it up yes [it was a surprise], with his performance no, because I was there every week and every training session working with him.
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“Seeing him just pick things up I would explain it one time and he would just do it and wow.
“So come WrestleMania, that tag match, everything he did – there was a few surprises like the [Candian] Destroyer, I wasn’t ready for that one. But everything else I was more proud than I was surprised.
“Seeing him like I said first-hand training, that was one where I was like, ‘what can’t this guy do?’”
Triple H admitted that Bad Bunny’s hard work and commitment proved key in earning his respect and Priest has confirmed the ‘Diles’ hitmaker has such a passion for wrestling.
Priest told talkSPORT: “That 100 percent is correct. That was the most noticeable thing as soon as I met him was his love for the business. I mean, he’s a mega fan.
“So I think that also helped with him just picking things up because we didn’t have to explain the business to him.
“You know when you have to explain the business and then explain how to do the job, right? No, it was just easier.
“Let’s just go to the physicality because he understood everything else that encompasses the business and he knows the history and he gets the psychology so that was a little easier because of that.
“And that’s probably why we hit it off so well as well, being both from the same island – both from the same town on the island.
“That alone put us together like made us close, but his love for the business and us, just talking wrestling, I definitely saw this passion through the conversations.”
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From teaming up together on Bunny’s WWE debut, Priest will now face his compatriot in a sanctioned street fight at Backlash.
The Judgement Day member joked to talkSPORT: “[That was] Definitely not on my bingo card. Sometimes things happen and you just gotta go with it.
“But yeah, I never foresaw that one with Puerto Rico on the horizon at Backlash, I would have assumed that we would have been on the same side doing something but here we are.”
WWE’s one-and-only live event in Puerto Rico was 2005’s New Year’s Revolution and Priest is under no illusions the responsibility of returning to San Juan with the island’s biggest export.
He said to talkSPORT: “Enormous!
“I’m so honoured for this because of the representation that being put front and centre with it being in Puerto Rico, the biggest streaming artist on the planet and WWE – what a combination!
“It’s historic so to me this is huge for the Hispanic community, for the company and for us, everybody involved.
“I’m extremely proud and honoured for this opportunity.”
