NXT TakeOver: Respect: Three Takeaways from Tonight’s Show

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The Heel Turn That Wasn’t

Coming into NXT TakeOver: Respect, a lot of fans saw dissension between Samoa Joe and Finn Balor. The two teamed to compete in, and ultimately win, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. The team never seemed to be completely at ease with one another, which had people wondering about their future.

Some people predicted a Finn Balor heel turn at TakeOver, including us at DailyDDT. However it never came to fruition, as Balor celebrated in the ring with the Rhodes family and his partner Samoa Joe without any inclination of a heel turn.

Some thought that Balor and Joe would lose the tournament and Balor would blame Joe for their shortcomings. Balor could also have walked out on his partner, playing up the injured knee angle and saying that the tournament was not worth risking his career for. It would have made Balor the slimy heel, only concerned with himself and nothing else.

This may go down as a missed opportunity for the development of Balor. He could work wonderfully as the leader of a heel stable Balor Club, which would work similarly to the Bullet Club he was famously a part of in New Japan Pro Wrestling. It has been a long time since there was a dominant faction in NXT, and would definitely shake up the format of NXT.

Balor works extremely well as a heel, as proven by his work in NJPW. In a feud with Joe it could have been explained how the power of the belt or the power of the Demon went to his head. Joe would be trying to get him to see that, but Balor would snap.

There is still hope for this heel turn to take place, but it would not have the same impact later as it could have had at NXT TakeOver: Respect. This was the prime time to capitalize on the tension between Joe and Balor and establish Balor as the top heel in NXT.