10 Things We Learned From WWE's Finn Bálor: For Everyone

6. The Perfect Debut

Finn Bálor
WWE.com

Despite years and years of audience abuse thanks to the difficult position he was placed in by WWE's booking of babyface headliners, Roman Reigns almost always gets the highest praise from his peers. Reflecting on his remarkable 2016 Monday Night Raw debut, Finn Bálor's take was no different.

He said; “Roman Reigns was the perfect opponent to debut against - I learned not only a lot about myself, but about wrestling and how it’s supposed to be done in WWE”.

The subtext was clear in his comments - he was incredibly proud to be called up from NXT, but extensive experience wrestling everywhere had prepared him for the unique challenge WWE television competition presented. Indifferent to the potential ignorance towards his smaller stature, Bálor instead made everything bigger, broader and as bombastic as he was capable of with his ice cool subdued persona.

The Fiend emerging for his first major pay-per-view helped address it, but there's little else anybody including Finn himself remember as vividly as the moment that changed his entire career...

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett