10 Booking Steps Leading Finn Bálor To WWE Title

2. A Hellish Title Win

Though not ideal, working within the parameters of WWE and mandated gimmick pay-per-views, Finn Bálor challenges Shinsuke Nakamura at Hell In A Cell in the eponymous match. The synergy between the character and the stipulation is too intriguing to resist; besides which, there is somewhere to go, with the dual-branded TLC PPV following less than a month later.

The match headlines the show, and is thus Bálor's first headlining match proper. Almost equidistant between WrestleMania 34 and 35, WWE needs an attraction to sustain interest in what is a traditional lull period. and this is it: a full-on 30 minute epic in which Bálor and Nakamura are afforded the freedom to craft a classic approaching the very top tier of the match's illustrious history. Nakamura by this point has held the WWE Title for seven months, defeating all comers in a welcome return to the epic babyface feel-good run.

It comes to and here. Nakamura goes out like the fighting champion he is. Nakamura delivered great wrestling matches, but as will likely happen in the real timeline, little in the way of sports entertainment - which, for all of its many faults, is far more compatible to the episodic wrestling churn.

Bálor, reloading his most deadly weapon and creating an awesome Hell In A Cell highlight reel moment, crushes Nakamura with the Coup de Grâce, flying from the mesh to the middle of the ring.