10 Things We Learned From WWE's Finn Bálor: For Everyone
Finn Bálor reveals the "best night of his career" in a rewarding look at his WWE journey so far.
Finn Bálor has lived a year within a month since returning to NXT on October 2nd.
On that night, he was something of a pawn - smiling babyface returning earlier than expected from a Fiend-inspired hiatus to pop a number, Bálor was at least an incredibly intelligent choice. He had history with the brand, and a distant past that invoked far nicer memories than his more recent one. But his announcement that he was back in NXT felt bigger not just because of his legacy but merely due to the precedent he appeared to set in this brave new era for the brand.
It took weeks until he was a talking point for a storyline reason, but his swerve turn on Johnny Gargano stands to be one of the best moments of the year, with his follow-up promo used to tee up what should be an exhilarating outing between the two.
Naturally, none of this made the cut on this official DVD release, but the extended profile piece did everything else it could to show the man behind (and covered in) the paint. Like Bálor's own assessment of his WWE career, it was mostly a success.
10. Help From Hideo
Finn Bálor's late-2014 arrival in NXT smartly utilised his recent history to inform what would become a prescient present.
Teaming with and then working against Hideo Itami was something of a soft-launch for the former New Japan star, and he makes that connection despite acknowledging Itami's slightly different background working for All Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Noting how fond his memories were of his time before signing on the dotted line with WWE, he was keen to put the recently re-christened KENTA over as a big help in his transition. He said; NXT was out of my comfort zone but I knew it was the next cool thing. When I stepped in the ring with Hideo there was a special familiarity. When we locked up, I felt at home.”
There's a certain tragic irony to this - the pair were indeed a natural fit in their early NXT runs, but Finn's maiden unveiling of The Demon at TakeOver: R Evolution inadvertently kicked his fellow new arrival into touch. As great as both looked bell-to-bell, there was only one destined to be a genuine breakout star in the aftermath.