At WrestleMania 39, Finn Balor faced off against longtime foe Edge inside Hell in a Cell.
He brought back his iconic Demon Balor entrance on the night, delighting the crowd in Los Angeles with the return of his popular old theme music.
However, fans were nearly robbed of the opportunity to see the Demon’s return to WWE on the Grandest Stage of Them All as Balor was injured just weeks before the spectacle took place.
Taking to social media, Balor revealed that he’d torn his calf on the March 10th episode of SmackDown. On that night, he teamed with fellow Judgement Day members Dominik Mysterio and Damian Priest to defeat Legado Del Fantasma’s Cruz del Toro, Joaquin Wilde, and Santos Escobar.
According to Balor, recovery for this type of injury normally takes 6-8 weeks, putting his Hell in a Cell match in serious jeopardy. However, he was able to return to action in just three weeks, and he thanked those who helped him for making his quick rehabilitation possible.
“Road to wrestlemania
On March 10th Ep of Smackdown I sustained a grade 2 calf tear.
Normal recovery time is estimated at 6-8 weeks.
Hold my beer!
With just 3 weeks & 2 days to Wrestlemania WWE medical team ‘threw the kitchen sink at it’ & with some careful planning, long days of rehab and a lot of swear words we made it back in time with a day or two spare!My wife said it best. ‘This injury has been the Demon of your career, and you need to over come this Demon to Release YOUR DEMON at Wrestlemania’ @verolaguera
Special thanks to CJ for his incredible work ( and not taking a day off for 3 weeks)
Extra mention to @docholmes & @athleanx for all their support.”
Finn Balor’s Injury Woes Continued At WrestleMania 39
Despite bringing back his iconic Demon persona, Balor came up short at WrestleMania 39, losing the Hell in a Cell bout to Edge.
In the middle of the match, Balor’s head was cut open when Edge hit him with a shot from a ladder inside the cell. The bout had to be paused as he was attended to at ringside, but thankfully he was able to continue after medical staff stopped the heavy bleeding.
Balor showed off photos of the grotesque injury on social media, later revealing that he required 14 staples to close the wound.