Ever since reclaiming the Intercontinental Championship on WWE Raw, The Miz hasn’t been booked into a long-term feud. Could his next rival be Finn Balor?
The creative team has come up with concrete plans for the likes of Alexa Bliss, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, and Brock Lesnar on WWE Raw ever since the “Superstar Shakeup” changed all the storylines, but many other superstars have been left in limbo.
The Miz has been somewhere in the middle, surprisingly enough. Although having “The Miztourage” (Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas) by his side has made things more intriguing, he hasn’t been given a long-term feud after winning the title back from Dean Ambrose. After all, The Miz didn’t defend the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam, which isn’t exactly the best way to help support a wrestler whose stated goal is to increase the prestige of the title.
But while The Miz’s booking has been uneven, Finn Balor’s booking has been wholly underwhelming. The WWE has done a nice job of protecting their first ever Universal Champion in the ring, but the worrisome thing is that Balor is starting to feel like just another guy.
This feud with Bray Wyatt, who pretty much has “go away” heat, is going nowhere, and it’s a shame the fans will have to sit through a meaningless blow-off match between them at No Mercy. I mean, I thought the feud was over and done with when Balor defeated Wyatt convincingly at SummerSlam – a much larger stage than No Mercy.
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Before that, Balor’s booking may have been even worse. During his first promo on Raw, he was interrupted by Wyatt, who then proceeded to talk about his then-rival Randy Orton. It was a display of disrespect, to be quite honest, because Wyatt basically acted as if Balor wasn’t even there. And, of course, they didn’t follow up on a Balor/Wyatt feud until months later.
Balor wasn’t even on the card for either Payback or Great Balls of Fire. At Payback, he made it on the Pre-Show…in a segment of Miz TV that went absolutely nowhere. Balor basically mocked The Miz, beat him up, and then left.
Just as the WWE took months to follow up on the random “confrontation” between Wyatt and Balor, I wonder if this could be the plan for Balor and The Miz. Right now, The Miz is coming off of a surprisingly clean win over Jeff Hardy in an Intercontinental Championship match on Raw. It’s unclear who he will defend his title against at No Mercy, but they could decide to wait on a Miz/Balor feud until after this Pay Per View.
Either way, the fact that The Miz disposed of Hardy, who is a tag team wrestler, so easily before No Mercy – without a future opponent in sight– is interesting. The consensus seems to be that they will continue to move towards a program that pits The Miz with Jason Jordan, who did the Miz TV “run” a few weeks ago. Plus, Jordan is coming off of an impressive match with John Cena to begin Raw, which is a sign that his push could be revived.
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However, it’s disappointing – just as it is crystal clear – that the WWE has no idea what to do with Balor, who is one of the company’s most talented and popular babyfaces. It would be nice to see him in a feud of some consequence, and battling with The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship would seem like a good spot for him. Balor is a worthy babyface champion, and it doesn’t seem like he’ll be in the Universal Title picture for quite some time with Cena, Reigns, Strowman, Joe, and Lesnar all on the Raw brand.