The REAL Reason WWE Is Pushing Finn Bálor

It stands to reason that Vince, in keeping with his ‘shiny new toys’ impulsiveness, gravitated towards this manifested action figure. Bálor, to the day, equalled Hulk Hogan’s rapid march to World title gold upon capturing the Universal Championship at SummerSlam ’16. Of course, Bálor suffered multiple major injuries in the process, and thus commenced the subsequent years-long nightmare in which he remains trapped. Infuriatingly, Bálor has mostly no-sold this nightmare on RAW, removing us from him, by very, very faithfully taking on board Vince’s “big smile out there” directive. There are so few stakes on RAW that nothing seems to matter to its cast—not even the inherent need for redemption that drives, or should drive, the classic wrestling babyface.

Both AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan were elevated in defeat by putting Brock Lesnar over at Survivor Series 2017 and 2018, respectively. To put into perspective the extent to which Vince soured on him, he didn’t even deem the similarly-sized Bálor a worthy loser. Bálor has joked on social media about his failed quest to reclaim the Universal Title—but it only brings into focus the lack of wit and humanity he is permitted to show on television.

Bálor wasn’t merely unconcerned over his lost Universal Title, he was just happy to be there—very, disconcertingly happy to crack witless jibes at the larger, more limited opponents who struck him, over and over again, with steel chairs following sneak attacks. Bray Wyatt, Kane, Baron Corbin: Bálor just sold, and sold, in angles that, in putting the heat on his heel antagonists, incinerated his headliner credibility.

But this role, per a recent rumour, is set for an exorcism.

“They’re very high on Finn Bálor, at least for the short term,” Dave Meltzer remarked on Wrestling Observer Radio this week.

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