Finn Balor has looked back on a point in his professional wrestling career when he hit a wall.
Following a successful career in New Japan, Balor made his arrival in WWE in 2014 and quickly became one of the standout performers on the NXT roster. One of the key figures in elevating the black and gold brand, fans were eagerly anticipating the day when Balor would be called up to the main roster and got the opportunity to mix it up with some of the biggest stars in the world.
The fans’ wishes were granted in 2016 when the former NXT Champion was called up to the WWE main roster as part of the 2016 Draft. Continuing his strong momentum that included a victory over Roman Reigns, Balor went on to SummerSlam and defeated Seth Rollins to become the first-ever Universal Champion. However, the triumph would turn into heartbreak shortly afterwards when it was announced the next night that Balor had suffered a shoulder injury and would require surgery, forcing him to vacate the title as a result.
Returning to WWE on the Raw after WrestleMania 33, Balor would still be featured prominently on the roster but was mainly a mid-card act that frequently lost and would never regain the top championship. In need of a change, Balor was revitalised when he was recruited into The Judgment Day by Edge before eventually betraying the former leader and turning heel, something Balor is very grateful for.
Speaking on the What’s The Story? podcast, Balor admitted that shortly before the turn he was in a slump and that multiple factors out of his control were against him. However, thanks to the input of The Rated R Superstar, his luck would change:
“I haven’t said this publicly, ever. But, the two months before I turned heel was probably the lowest I’d been in my career, with respect to investment level, the personal investment. I was just showing up, I was going, ‘Yeah, who do you want me to lose to today?’ It was just kind of the same sh*t that I’d been doing over and over again and I was doing the same act for so long and I just felt like I had so much more to give.
But, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. There was a lot of factors that led into this and one of them was COVID because COVID meant that my green card process got all f*cked up and then, because of that, I had to go home to Ireland for two months right before WrestleMania so then I was kind of out of the buildup to WrestleMania.
I came back right before WrestleMania, I was left off WrestleMania because there was no time to build a match so that then just starts to f*ck with your brain, going like, sh*t, why am I not on WrestleMania? I’m not good enough. But it wasn’t really that. It was just COVID had locked me in the U.S. for two years so then when the lockdown stopped, I needed to travel to Ireland to get all my visa and paperwork still sorted. That took so long because it’s the backup from the two years.
That then had an affect on the next couple of months of my career and it was right there that I was kind of left in limbo in the storylines, we’re just throwing sh*t at the wall and it was kind of Edge who was the one who said, ‘No, I want this guy. This guy, we’re not using him enough. I want him in Judgment Day’ and that’s kind of where things started to turn and then we went with the story of putting me and A.J. (Styles) and Liv (Morgan) together as a little kind of faction just so I had someone to turn on.
That was literally set up just for me to turn and originally, I was supposed to turn on A.J. but, then it all changed. I turned on Edge because I think someone got injured and they needed to turn Edge back babyface or something like that. One domino falls, the whole stack goes…”
Finn Balor Commits To WWE Long-Term
Like many Superstars in 2024, the Tag Team Champion was approaching the end of his contract and confirmed shortly after WrestleMania that he had signed a new WWE deal. During the same interview, Finn Balor confirmed the length of his new contract.
Also in the interview, Balor revealed which WWE star begged to take a massive RKO from Randy Orton.
In a new interview, a top WWE star called out Finn Balor.
H/t to Post Wrestling.