In an interview with The Ringer Wrestling Show, newly-crowned WWE United States Champion Damian Priest discussed several topics, including taking a year away from wrestling, what made him return to the wrestling business and more.

On his year away from the business before returning, Priest stated the following, “There were a few times that I thought that maybe I should go out and get a job and I did, I stopped wrestling for almost a year, something in me said I wasn’t born for this. I was born for this world, I was born for the WWE world, there was nothing else that I could envision myself doing where I would be happy and loving my life.

I watched WrestleMania 25, it was The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels and boom, right away I was like I have to get back in the ring, I need to make people feel like the way they just made me feel and then I went full throttle, I really overly committed myself. Before that, I kind of coasted and surrounded myself with the wrong people telling me what I wanted to hear, you’re going to be fine, you’re going to be a big star, you have the look and charisma, don’t worry about it. That’s not what I needed to hear, I needed somebody to give me a boot.

I used to be overweight, I lost over 150lbs in the course of two years, I relaly dedicated myself and it changed my life. I never believed in the idea of the power of positivity until one day I was like, you know what, let me just try it out, what else can I lose. You start doing it and an opportunity opens up, the another opportunity, I’m like this is a real thing, even if a negative happens, focus on the positive of any situation and then you live happier.”

The interview is available in full at this link.