WWE Royal Rumble 2018: The Case For/Against Finn Balor
The WWE Royal Rumble 2018 is just three weeks away, and the field is beginning to heat up. With stars on both brands throwing their name into the hat left and right, one man sets himself apart, Finn Balor.
The WWE Royal Rumble 2018 will be Finn Balor’s first go at the event. Due to the timing of his call-up to the main roster and then an almost instant injury, he missed the 2017 event. With some recent questions about Balor’s outreach to the fans, it’s a wonder if he’ll do well. The answer is yes, he’ll do very well. With the reforming of The Club last week on Raw, Balor has a new lease on life.
With his return from injury, Balor hasn’t had many storylines within which he could sink his teeth. A floundering rivalry with Bray Wyatt that in all honesty sent them both backward. And now he finds himself in a feud with the Miztourage, just without The Miz.
But last week Balor got a shot in the arm when he was placed into a 6-man tag match. Given the opportunity to pick his partners, he made a call to the Good Brothers, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows. The Club had now been reworked to have the original leader of the Bullet Club back at the helm.
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The Balor Club targets the Rumble
So with the Royal Rumble coming in fast on January 28th, Balor now has new weapons for the match. It hasn’t been announced but with 30 slots needing to be filled, it seems logical that all 3 Club members would be in the match. If so, this is where Balor’s odds go way up. Now it isn’t one man in there with 29 others, it’s three. This is where the case for Balor is born. The story of Gallows and Anderson helping Balor eliminate others then eliminate themselves would be massive.
Many feel Balor should be a face but his heel work in NJPW as the leader of the Bullet Club was some of the best work he’s done in his career. Now if Balor does win the Royal Rumble, that would throw a wrench into the long believed plans of Reigns v. Lesnar at WrestleMania. But if we remember, Balor never truly got a shot to win his vacated Universal Championship back upon his return. So Finn very well may be willing to do whatever it takes to get his title shot at the show of shows.
The Demon battles The Beast
But we also have to examine the other side of the coin. We have to take off our rose-colored mark glasses and realize that Balor winning may not be the best idea. After Lesnar-AJ Styles from Survivor Series, the size difference isn’t as scary. It’s the same thing we would be talking about if they had ever given fans the Bryan-Lesnar match. It is very hard to believe a guy Finn’s size could truly do any damage to Lesnar. This may be asking fans to suspend disbelief too much to book this match.
Lesnar did more selling than he has in a decade for AJ Styles. This could’ve been due to his respect for Styles and his ability in the ring, or he just likes AJ, we will never know. It’s unknown if Lesnar would be willing to do so for Balor. So fans would get behind Balor as he is a fresh challenger to Lesnar’s throne, but it may not work out business wise. Like I mentioned above, the size difference is huge and if the creative team doesn’t build a strong enough story, the match could fall flat on its face.
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Finn Balor winning the Royal Rumble could lead to a plethora of new storylines and avenues for the creative team. However, with what feels like a main event that was written at last year’s WrestleMania, does he truly have a chance? With The Club looking like it is back in full force, this may allow the WWE to give Balor the Royal Rumble and allow Lesnar a loss that doesn’t make him look weak.
With three weeks left until the Royal Rumble, each episode of Raw will become more and more important. I personally, would love a Balor title win at WrestleMania with Gallows and Anderson by his side.