Damian Priest misses WWE SmackDown MSG dark match due to travel issues

Travel issues prevented World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest from making his scheduled appearance at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

Priest was supposed to defend his title against Jey Uso in a dark match after WWE SmackDown went off the air. But, despite trying his best to be there, Priest was unable to get to New York City for the show. His flight was delayed due to plane issues. Just before 7 p.m. Eastern time, Priest sent out a tweet apologizing to fans and informing them that his plane had still not taken off.

“Unfortunately the honor of main eventing The Garden is not possible tonight,” Priest wrote. “Still haven’t taken off. Stuck on a plane in a runway. Very disappointed and apologies to my people. This one hurts. Enjoy the show! #SmackDown I’m sure will be awesome.”

The dark match main event was instead a street fight where Uso defeated Finn Balor. There was also a dark match where The Miz & R-Truth defeated Pretty Deadly.

As World Heavyweight Champion, Priest is one of the top stars on the Raw roster. He’s putting the title on the line against Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank on July 6. The winner will then defend against Gunther at SummerSlam.