10 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Extreme Rules 2019

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10. Bigger Things For Balor, Right?

finn balor nakamura
WWE.com

While it’s easy to categorize Finn Balor losing the Intercontinental Championship as a negative, let’s face facts: He wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire with the title.

Balor traded the title with Bobby Lashley before regaining it at WrestleMania 35 and then being sent over the SmackDown. Since then, he’d successfully defended it three times: on Raw the night after Mania, at the WWE house show featuring the Shield’s final match, and at Super Showdown.

Notice what’s missing? Regular PPV title defenses. He didn’t defend the title at either Money in the Bank or Stomping Grounds, nor had he defended the title on SmackDown even once. The title was being wasted on him, and he wasn’t doing anything of note.

With a regime change coming with Eric Bischoff at the helm of the blue brand, could it be that getting the title off Finn is signaling bigger things for him? He can’t be in the background for a long time – he moves way too much merchandise – so perhaps this is a reset of sorts for him.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.