Superstar who returned to WWE loses major feud after months on SmackDown

A major feud has finally come to a conclusion on SmackDown after half a year. The superstar who returned to WWE in 2025 ended up being on the losing end of the rivalry as it concluded.

This week on SmackDown, the main event featured the first-ever ambulance match in the history of the blue brand. Considering that the show is now three hours, atleast for the foreseeable future, it made sense to end the show with a banger of a match that was guaranteed to deliver. That match was the decider between Damian Priest and Aleister Black, with the latter being 2-1 in the feud. Although Damian Priest won and equaled the tally at 2-2, he ended up being the winner of the rivalry.

Courtesy of Rhea Ripley, who was on SmackDown anyway, the threat of Zelina Vega was removed, but Damian Priest still had a monumental task ahead of him. In the end, he had to channel "The Punisher" side of himself, as he is sometimes called, and that saw him hit the Razor's Edge on Aleister Black onto a windshield before finishing him and ending their rivalry for good.

2025 was certainly a bizarre year for Damian Priest in the sense that it didn't have the same type of accomplishments that the year before did. He admitted that WWE asked him to take a step back intentionally, which is why he wasn't as prominent a character on the SmackDown roster as he should have been. Despite teasing matches against Jacob Fatu and Cody Rhodes, neither materialized.

However, this was to preserve his health, and if anything, this ambulance match is symbolic of the possibility that 2026 will be another massively successful year in the incredible career of Damian Priest. Aleister Black will be looking for a fresh start.

Edited by Rohit Nath