Finn Balor’s slide down WWE may be more than just a temporary funk.
News broke earlier this week that asserted than Vince McMahon had gone cold on Finn Balor which resulted in him losing an opportunity to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. However, a new report says Balor was never slated for the match as McMahon doesn’t see him deserving of such a stage.
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According to SI.com McMahon believes Balor’s character is stale unless he’s portraying his Demon persona. This runs counter to the original story that claimed WWE had once been behind the 36-year old Irishmen but lost enthusiasm. But if SI’s story is true that means that WWE, or at least Vince McMahon never saw Balor as a main eventer.
Balor has endured a peculiar 2017. Upon his return from injury, fan’s (and likely Finn’s) expectations had him reassuming his role atop of WWE. However, Balor has seen his spot on the card take a step down on a near monthly basis. Finn would re-claim momentum after his stellar impromptu TLC match with AJ Styles, though. Upon his big victory, it felt like WWE was ready to reinvest in Balor’s push, but he lost cleanly to a 50-year old Kane the next night on RAW. Ever since, Balor’s future has continued to cloud.
Finn now finds himself firmly planted in WWE’s mid-card. While still certainly an attraction, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be re-entering the main event for quite some time. Currently embroiled in a feud with Samoa Joe, Balor now finds himself in the crosshairs of a 50/50 program where neither he nor Joe will benefit.
WWE may have jumped the gun when they shotgunned Balor to become the inaugural Universal Champion at 2016’s SummerSlam. While his injury was quite unfortunate, Balor has proven in his return from surgery to be mostly arbitrary when not adorning several coats of body paint.
While there are plenty of Superstars in worse situations than Balor, he and his fans likely imagined his WWE run going much different than what has transpired.
