Title: Why WWE Are WRONG About Finn Balor!
According to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, the plan since WrestleMania was to
build towards Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor at Royal Rumble 2018.
The seeds were planted throughout the year, beginning with Paul Heyman cutting a promo
on Finn ahead of the Fatal Five Way at Extreme Rules in June - where Heyman called him the
most talented in-ring performer in WWE and Brock Lesnar’s biggest threat.
In the following months, Balor would cut backstage promos about regaining his Universal Championship,
and after it was revealed AJ Styles would face Lesnar at Survivor Series, Heyman made
sure to mention again that Balor was the most talented wrestler in WWE.
However, the day of Survivor Series, Vince McMahon reportedly decided that Balor wasn’t
the direction he wanted to go with at Royal Rumble.
Although some other outlets said the decision was made much earlier in the year.
Whatever the timeframe, the decision was made was because Vince McMahon didn’t think Finn
Balor was over enough to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Royal Rumble
- instead inserting the Braun Strowman and Kane feud into the title picture.
As Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly put it:
“They booked a guy to not get over, he didn’t get over, and then they go, ‘this guy can’t
get over”
Finn Balor has not had a good 2017.
Returning from his injury in April right back into the main event picture with Seth Rollins,
Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe.
But from there, he just kept slipping down the card.
Aside from the Fatal Five Way at Extreme Rules, Balor hasn’t been within a mile of the Universal
Championship which has been dominated by the much larger Strowman, Joe and Roman Reigns.
Instead Balor has been in bland feuds with Elias and a career-low rivalry with Bray Wyatt
- which nearly resulted in Balor becoming the Pumpkin King to take on Wyatt in drag.
Balor instead had a fantastic match against AJ Styles , which ended up being the most-talked
about match from the whole night - impressive since the main event saw the WWE in-ring return
of Kurt Angle.
Since then Balor has been teasing this rumour on social media - having the word OVER in
capital letters on as many of his tweets as possible.
Whether this was a message to McMahon or the Dirt Sheets is unknown, but Balor’s position
in the company has been made perfectly clear since Survivor Series.
He went from being in the five-on-five elimination match to being squashed by Kane and getting
into a fued with comedy jobbers Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas.
It would be one thing if Balor was just running through them, but they’re having competitive
matches.
Axel and Bo have zero credibility with the crowd, so Balor selling for extended periods
of time for these two jabronies is telling the audience that he’s on the same level
as them - highlighted further when he was saved on Monday Night Raw by 205 Live star
Hideo Itami.
Do you know who are lower on the totem pole than Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel?
The cruiserweights.
But here’s the thing: WWE and Vince McMahon are wrong about Finn Balor.
A quick watch of his entrance and the way the crowd react to him shows that he is over.
He may not be as over as Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns, but he’s far more over than
Kane is in 2017.
And if WWE hadn’t spent the year booking him to look like a chump every single week
then we wouldn’t be in this situation.
So why don’t WWE have faith in Balor?
One would assume firstly it’s his size - even if history has proven you don’t have to
be the biggest guy in the world to be a top star - and his lack of promo ability.
What’s weird is that Finn isn’t a terrible promo, but reportedly Kevin Dunn - executive
vice president of television production and one of Vince’s closest allies - hates Becky
Lynch’s accent and petitioned to give her less and less promo time on Smackdown Live
when she was women’s champion.
It’s not a stretch to believe that the same feelings are felt towards Balor.
Here’s the counter to that: if you don’t like his accent or think he can’t cut a
promo - give him a mouthpiece.
They’re not that hard to find.
Brock Lesnar can’t cut a promo, but he doesn’t need to because he has Paul Heyman by his
side to do it for him.
You think he’s small?
Give him a group around him then.
Why not put Gallows and Anderson with him to create The Balor Club.
Both Gallows and Anderson are great promos, which means they can do all the talking while
Finn speaks with his action.
As Paul Heyman used to say about ECW: hide the negatives and accentuate the positives.
They had bad lighting and a dingy arena, let’s distract them with amazing wrestling.
Finn Balor can’t cut a promo, have someone do it for him and focus on his incredible
in-ring work.
Balor has all the potential to be a top star in WWE, just as he proved while over in New
Japan.
Whether the answer is turning him heel or sticking him in a group, it’s foolish to
waste so much potential on lower midcard feuds with guys he’s so much better than.
I get that Vince McMahon wants Lesnar to beat monsters before facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania,
but Balor is more than just a monster - he’s a demon - and to paraphrase Paul Heyman - a
man who knows a thing or two about professional wrestling - he’s also one of the best in-ring
performers in the WWE.
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I’ve been Luke Owen and that was just my opinion.