That’s right folks, Samoa Joe is the new NXT Champion, defeating Finn Balor…at a live event, in Lowell, Massachusetts. We look at what’s next for Finn Balor…
It’s always been extremely rare for WWE to have a title change hands at a live event, like many I hadn’t even heard of the place before, the simple reason this doesn’t happen often (if ever) is that not a lot of people will see it. Joining Samoa Joe and Finn Balor in the history books, the most famous non-televised title change was when Diesel beat Bob Backlund in a whopping 8 seconds for the then WWF Championship back in 1994. The most recent title change at a house show came in January 2012, where Primo and Epico defeated Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne for the WWE Tag Team Titles, which was due to Bourne’s suspension from the company.
So, this sudden title change, which really could have happened at NXT Takeover: Dallas, has left fans wondering: What’s next for Finn Balor? The man who held the NXT title for a record-breaking 292 days now finds himself without the prize he won back in his beloved Tokyo at Beast in the East. Being the tease that he is, Balor said ‘See You Monday’ to the fans who waited for a glimpse of him after the show. Balor didn’t appear on the following Raw, because that’s a rather large part of his gimmick. Likewise, he didn’t rock up at Payback like everyone was predicting either, and that made a few people sad. However, this doesn’t rule out a Balor debut within the coming weeks or months, and with that being said, let’s have a look at the potential storyline options available to WWE.
The most obvious, and certainly the most likely option, is to form the Balor Club with Gallows and Anderson, turning against AJ Styles. Even though this didn’t happen at Payback, there’s still a big possibility of it going down at Extreme Rules during Roman and AJ’s rematch. It would make a lot of sense, since Balor was the original leader of the Bullet Club, and despite Anderson taking over that role when Balor left New Japan, Styles was the one fighting for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This is certainly something WWE can use in the story, as Anderson and Gallows may have been jealous of the limelight always being on AJ, hence why they turned on him the night after Wrestle Kingdom 10. It would also be smart to mention that, despite Balor attacking Bullet Club members The Young Bucks during his final match, Gallows and Anderson never turned on the original leader. The three interfering and attacking AJ is the smartest thing to do here, as not only does it set up what would be a fantastic rivalry between Balor and Styles, but it gives Roman Reigns a victory via outside interference to go along with the two times AJ technically beat him at Payback, something that would surely help him down the line if a heel turn is planned (WHICH IT SHOULD BE) and it would be something for his next challenger, whoever that may be, to mention and constantly bring up in the build up to their match. You get two good storylines branching out of one debut, it’s a win-win.
So, now that the Balor Club stuff has been mentioned, let’s look at something that’s a little more unlikely. A Balor singles run with absolutely no involvement from his former Bullet Club stablemates. Have Balor come in debuting against a top face, much like Kevin Owens did against John Cena last year, and have him win not just one match, but the inevitable series of 3. It would immediately make him look like a force to be reckoned with in the singles division, and a Money in the Bank victory wouldn’t be too shabby either. This is just faraway potential stories from somewhere in the back of my brain, but remember, things don’t always go the way you’d expect in WWE. I mean, look at Shane McMahon, he’s still here, running Raw despite losing that kind of big match against the Undertaker that he needed to WIN in order to gain control of Raw. Isn’t logic wonderful?
There is one potential outcome of Finn moving to the main roster that I feel like I have to talk about. And you’re probably not going to like it. It’s definitely not a suggestion, it’s more of a worry that’s in the back of my mind. What if Balor ends up like many of his former NXT colleagues on the main roster and is just there to make up the numbers? I mean, Tyler Breeze did incredibly well to reinvent himself on NXT and more than deserved his place on the main roster, and now he’s currently sitting at a record of 3 wins to 70 losses in 2016. SEVENTY LOSSES. Bray Wyatt and the rest of his family always seem to be involved in big angles, but they pretty much always come out of them looking worse than they did going in. It was a shame that injury cut short Bray’s tenure as a face, because it would have been intriguing to see where it would have led him. Apollo Crews only debuted on Raw the night after WrestleMania and already he’s become lost in the shuffle, so much so that I didn’t even notice him in the US Title Battle Royal on Raw. There are countless others I could mention, but I don’t want to scare you too much with this unfortunately real possibility. With Balor being as big of a star as he was on NXT, this possibility is extremely unlikely (that’s what I’d like to think anyway) since there are a multitude of options for him on the main roster, and due to his immense talent of course, but it’s always going to worry me that he could become just another ‘superstar’ appearing on Main Event once every two weeks.
Of course, you never know, Finn may be teasing us as always and stay in NXT, having singles matches with Shinsuke Nakamura until the end of time. I would not mind that one bit if you’re reading, Paul.
So, those are the options for what WWE can do with Finn Balor now he’s lost the NXT Championship. Sure, one’s really obvious and should definitely happen and the others are faraway possibilities, but you never really know what to happen in WWE. Nowadays, you seem to get swerved just by not being swerved. Weird world. If you have any suggestions about potential storylines for Finn, why not comment them below, or suggest them to us on Twitter? Thanks as always for reading.