After watching on from the sidelines for weeks on end due to an unfortunate broken jaw suffered at TakeOver 31, NXT Champion Finn Balor finally threw himself back into the spotlight at the top of this week's show.
Balor wasted little time throwing down the gauntlet, challenging anyone in the back to come and see him in the ring. "The Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne was the first to answer the call, followed by the Undisputed Era's Kyle O'Reilly, and then former NXT North American Champion Damien Priest. The three stars eventually all began to bicker like a bunch of school kids, with O'Reilly pulling out a particularly hilarious/offensive British accent to mock Dunne.
The champ soon wandered off during this bout of squabbling before revealing that he will be defending his belt at January 6's New Year's Evil show, but he'd let William Regal sort out who would be stepping up to "The Prince".
If that bombshell wasn't enough, Scarlett suddenly returned to stare a hole through the champ's head, inserting former NXT Champion Karrion Kross' name into the contendership hat.
Is Balor's time as the brand's top belt holder, already cut to shreds by injury, nearly up? If the formidable star who never lost his title has anything to say about it, this Irishman may need to dip into his demonic bag of tricks to survive.
