6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (17 July - Review)

3. Balor Brings The Intensity

Seth Rollins Finn Balor
WWE

As much as we’ve grumbled about WWE trying to treat a 7-year-old injury they brushed off in storyline as some great long-term retconned storytelling, we have to at least acknowledge the work Finn Balor is putting in during his feud with Seth Rollins.

Balor is hellbent on winning the World Heavyweight Championship, and he made a point to commandeer Rollins’ sit-down interview backstage to address the champ and make the case for why he deserves a rematch. Seth pointed out that Balor’s revenge fantasy doesn’t necessarily need a title, but Finn laid him out and demanded he put the title up against him.

It’s a simple story, really: Rollins cost Balor the title and year off his career (SEVEN YEARS AGO), and Finn is looking to exact his pound of flesh. He came an eyelash away from winning at Money in the Bank, and he wants his rematch, so he’s doing whatever he can to get it. It’s a perfectly fine angle for the world title, if pretty direct and basic.

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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.