Adam Copeland saw what Vince McMahon missed in Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest

How Vince McMahon missed the obvious

In the spring of 2022, WWE was operating on creative autopilot. The main event scene was locked down by Roman Reigns, while the mid-card was populated by performers trapped in repetitive three-minute television loops. It was in this stagnant environment that Adam Copeland pitched the formation of a new faction to Vince McMahon.

As reported by Ringside News, Copeland recently detailed how McMahon wanted the group to mirror the Brood. When Copeland suggested Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest as his running mates, McMahon was surprised. This reaction exposed the deep creative blind spots of the old regime.

He was kind of surprised by that, and that made me realize he didn’t understand what he had in those two, and I thought that was a shame.

Copeland quickly realized that the WWE chairman did not understand the caliber of talent he had sitting on the bench. He saw two performers who had the physical presence to anchor the company but were being wasted in dead-end storylines. Copeland's proposal was not just a faction pitch; it was a rescue mission.

The stagnation of the mid-card

To understand why this pitch was necessary, one must look at where Priest was positioned in early 2022. Priest was already 39 years old and had spent the previous year locked in a creative cul-de-sac. His United States Championship reign was derailed by the baffling "Damian Side" gimmick, a split-personality presentation that made no sense in terms of ring psychology.

This presentation forced Priest to act like a PG-rated Jekyll and Hyde, shifting from a cool babyface to a snarling villain mid-match. The transition was synthetic, drawing polite golf claps rather than genuine heat. Priest was an experienced performer who had wrestled around the world, yet WWE was programming him like an absolute novice.

He dropped the title to Finn Bálor on the February 28, 2022 edition of Raw and turned heel, but his career was flatlining. Rhea Ripley’s situation was even more egregious. She was a physical marvel with a powerhouse frame and an undeniable charisma, yet she was relegated to a series of comedy tag teams.

A rescue mission disguised as a faction

Her pairing with Nikki A.S.H. was booked as a joke, followed by an equally directionless run with Liv Morgan. Ripley was being treated as a utility player to fill television segments rather than the generational talent she clearly was. McMahon’s office simply failed to see that her physical presence and gothic aesthetic could anchor an entire division.

Copeland saw the massive gap between Ripley's potential and her booking, and he used his political clout to pull her out of the tag team swamp. Yet, the initial execution of the Judgment Day showed that McMahon still did not comprehend what he had. The faction debuted at WrestleMania 38 and was immediately weighed down by over-produced theatricality.

The night the blueprint changed

The corporate goth phase

McMahon dressed the group in matching dark suits and placed them on elevated platforms under deep purple lights. They delivered long, stilted promos filled with corporate jargon about "the mountain of greatness." It was a classic example of WWE taking a counter-culture concept and sanitizing it for a corporate television broadcast.

The crowd sat in silence during these segments. The physical menace of Priest and the raw power of Ripley were hidden behind mic-heavy, theatrical scripts. It was a slow, agonizing start that threatened to kill the faction before it could even get off the ground.

The stable’s trajectory changed overnight on June 6, 2022. Finn Bálor joined the group, and within minutes, the stable turned on their creator. Priest, Ripley, and Bálor beat Copeland down, culminating in a Con-Chair-To that wrote him off television.

At the time, this booking decision was widely criticized. Reports emerged that Copeland was unhappy with the supernatural direction McMahon wanted to take the stable. Evicting the group’s only established star after only two months felt like a panic move.

Finding authenticity in outlaws

However, this structural shift was the best thing that could have happened to Ripley and Priest. It stripped away the corporate gothic aesthetics and forced them to find their own voices. Without Copeland’s veteran shadow, they had to sink or swim on their own merits.

The addition of Dominik Mysterio at Clash at the Castle on September 3, 2022, completed the puzzle. The group stopped trying to be a spooky cult and became a pack of obnoxious, co-dependent outlaws. Ripley’s role shifted from silent muscle to the group's undisputed leader.

Her chemistry with Dominik was the hottest angle on Raw. She would stand in front of him, shielding him from babyfaces, while Dominik hid behind her like a cowardly cartoon villain. This dynamic allowed Ripley to showcase her physical dominance without needing to wrestle every week.

A championship run with permanent consequences

Rhea Ripley crowns herself

The payoff came at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles. Ripley challenged Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship. The match lasted 23 minutes and 33 seconds of sustained, high-intensity physicality.

It was a masterpiece of pacing and ring psychology. Ripley countered Charlotte's signature moves with brutal, power-based transitions. At one point, she executed a German suplex that flipped Charlotte completely onto her face.

She finally secured the win by hitting a Riptide from the second rope. It was the best women's match in WrestleMania history, proving that Ripley was a main-event player. Her rise was built on her ability to deliver in high-pressure matches.

Damian Priest survives his own booking

Priest's path to the top was longer and more complicated. He won the Money in the Bank contract in London on July 1, 2023. For the next nine months, his booking was highly frustrating.

He repeatedly failed to cash in the contract due to interference or miscommunication with his teammates. This booking made Priest look indecisive and weak. Instead of looking like a dangerous threat, he looked like a mid-carder who was out of his depth.

But the payoff at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia was executed perfectly. On April 7, 2024, Drew McIntyre defeated Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship. McIntyre then stood on the announcer's table to taunt CM Punk.

Punk snapped, pulling McIntyre off the table and beating him with his arm cast. Priest ran down the ramp, handed in his briefcase, and hit a South of Heaven chokeslam. McIntyre's title reign lasted only five minutes and 46 seconds before Priest pinned him.

Despite the historic moment, Priest’s reign was plagued by booking inconsistencies. His defenses against Jey Uso at Backlash France and Drew McIntyre at Clash at the Castle in Scotland were over-booked. He needed outside interference to win both matches, which undermined his credibility as a champion.

At Clash at the Castle on June 15, 2024, Priest suffered a terrifying botch when his leg caught in the ropes. He spent several seconds hanging upside down before freeing himself. While his ability to finish the match was impressive, the incident highlighted the lack of polish in his presentation.

He was booked as a transition champion rather than a dominant force. His reign lasted 118 days before Gunther defeated him at SummerSlam on August 3, 2024. Yet, the match at SummerSlam was Priest’s finest hour.

He wrestled with a physical intensity that had been missing from his run. He stood toe-to-toe with Gunther, trading blistering chops and power moves. The turning point came when Finn Bálor betrayed Priest, placing Gunther's foot on the ropes to break a pin.

This betrayal allowed Gunther to secure the choke and win the title. Even though Priest lost the championship, the match accomplished what his entire reign had failed to do. It turned him into a sympathetic, top-tier babyface.

The crowd rallied behind him, validating Copeland's original belief that Priest belonged in the main event. The success of Judgment Day highlights a shift in how WWE builds stars. Under McMahon, stables were typically created to feed a single top star before being discarded.

Copeland's vision was different: a collective where everyone raised their profile through shared television time. We see the difficulty of executing this style of booking elsewhere. In AEW, stables often struggle with consistency. Even elite performers like Kenny Omega have seen their faction storylines stalled by injuries or sudden booking changes.

Judgment Day survived the loss of its founder, the addition of new members, and a complete shift in tone. They became the anchor of Raw's weekly television show because the foundation was solid. Adam Copeland's assessment of Vince McMahon was entirely correct. McMahon saw Ripley and Priest as role players. He was blind to the raw physical talent and charisma that made them unique.

Copeland saw the future of the company and forced McMahon to give them a platform. Four years after the faction's debut, Ripley and Priest are two of WWE’s most important assets. Their success proves Copeland’s eye for talent and stands as a reminder of how close WWE came to wasting two of its biggest stars.