7 New Wrestling Champions Who Immediately Did Something Stupid

2. Finn Bálor

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What first-ever Universal Champ Finn Bálor did immediately after winning WWE's brand-new, garishly-sanguine strap at SummerSlam 2016 was incredibly sensible, not stupid. Thirty years prior, he'd have been pilloried by grizzled vets for his utter idiocy.

During his coronating contest opposite Seth Rollins, the Irishman suffered a torn labrum - an injury that'd put him on the shelf for at least four months. On the very night he reached WWE's summit, he was cruelly pushed back down by fate. That was just the way the proverbial mop flopped.

In a bygone era, The Extraordinary Man would have been expected to do an extraordinarily silly thing and simply hide his injury - or at the very least, downplay it. It would have been completely unthinkable in the '80s to give up a spot at the very very top on night one because of something as trivial as a poxy dislocated shoulder. To be fair, they have a point: Bálor has summarily failed to regain his place in the Universal Title picture since his return.

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Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.