10 Biggest "What If" Moments In WWE SummerSlam History

On Finn Bálor's first full night as part of WWE's main roster, he defeated Cesaro, Rusev, Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns clean. Within a month he was in the main event of SummerSlam and pinned Seth Rollins to be crowned the company's first-ever Universal Champion. Truly, there's never been a debut push quite like it.

However, owing to an injury sustained in that very match, he was forced to relinquish his championship after just one day. Vacating it to a tournament on Raw, never to hold it again. The remainder of his time on both Raw and SmackDown was mired in the midcard, with a few scant highlights not enough to stop his return to NXT from feeling like a bit of a relief. But it could have been so different.

When he was called up, Bálor was riding the crest of an unimaginable wave. He was thermo-over in NXT, shipped merch at an absurd rate, and could easily have played the technical main-eventer role that ultimately went to Seth Rollins. That injury robbed him of a summer programme with Rollins and, in all likelihood, a co-main event slot at WrestleMania the following year.

The Universal Championship ended up being contested between Lesnar and Goldberg at that event but, had Bálor still been holding it heading into 2017, it would likely have been The Demon vs The Beast instead.