WWE: Finn Balor Should Have Beef With Kurt Angle

Finn Balor became the WWE’s first Universal Champion when he defeated Seth Rollins at SummerSlam 2016, yet he’s never had a match for the title since.

When Finn Balor returned from an injury on the Raw after WrestleMania, there was plenty of excitement in the air. After all, Balor has been one of the most popular wrestlers in the world ever since making a splash as the founder of the Bullet Club in NJPW. Arguably NXT’s most successful champion, Balor was welcomed by the main roster fans with open arms and surely would have enjoyed a great run as the Universal Champion.

But instead of capitalizing on that excitement, the WWE didn’t do much with Balor for months. His first moment of true brilliance occurred at TLC when he took on AJ Styles. And that match wasn’t even supposed to happen. Originally, Balor was supposed to finish his feud with Bray Wyatt in a weird Pumpkin Demon vs. Wyatt-as-Sister-Abigail match to end one of the WWE’s worst rivalries of the year. However, Wyatt suffered an illness, which led to Balor and Styles tearing down the house in a battle of former Bullet Club leaders.

Then the night after, Balor lost to Kane after three chokeslams. In reality, the only person to blame for that booking decision is Vince McMahon. But in kayfabe, the blame is pinned on Raw GM Kurt Angle. Think about it, what type of idiot books a match between a monstrous behemoth hell-bent on revenge after being battered the night before by Braun Strowman, against an undersized wrestler who just left it all in the ring against the best wrestler in the company? Apparently Angle does.

Balor laid low until reforming the Balor Club with his old pals Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, giving him a shot of momentum. He received much more than that at the Royal Rumble, entering at the No. 2 spot and making it to the Final Four as one of the night’s top performers.

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And what did Balor do the night after a grueling Rumble match in which he lasted longer than any other male competitor?

Well, he got put in a qualifying match against John Cena for a spot in the Elimination Chamber. Angle doesn’t book the matches in reality, no, but in kayfabe, he is the one setting all of this stuff up.

Clearly, Angle is either an incompetent GM, or he has something out for Balor. Why did Jason Jordan get a whole bunch of Intercontinental Championship opportunities whereas Balor got nothing?

In what world was Jordan more qualified than Balor? Plus, Balor and The Miz established their hatred for each other back at Payback when Balor inducted Miz into the “Finn Balor Just Kicked My Ass Club” on Miz TV.

Everyone and their favorite wrestling writer seems to be fantasy booking a Balor heel turn, which seems to make perfect sense now that he’s reunited with Gallows and Anderson. As a wrestling character, Balor is always at his best when he’s “smug”, and he was legitimately one of the best heels in the world as the Real Rock’N’Rolla Prince Devitt in New Japan.

A heel turn from Balor seems inevitable, and there are a few candidates of people he can turn against. But if the WWE wants something for Kurt Angle to do and isn’t interested in doing Balor vs. Miz (maybe Dave Meltzer’s Braun Strowman vs. Miz WrestleMania rumor comes to fruition), then Angle vs. Balor is an outside-the-box feud that makes storyline sense.

Either way, Balor’s character has been screwed over regularly by management on Raw, even in a kayfabe sense. It would be a disappointment for Balor’s character to just sit there and watch as he gets put into worse situations than his peers on Raw.

As Cageside Seats’s “Brigade17” writes,

"“It’s time, Finn. This brand has treated you like garbage. It’s time to lean on the Good Brothers and start taking what you’re owed.”"

Again, I understand that Angle and Raw management aren’t actually responsible for Balor’s booking, but his character can’t just be completely unresponsive to his lack of opportunities. We’ve seen Rusev, Kevin Owens, and plenty of other wrestlers call out Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon over on SmackDown Live, so there is precedent for Balor finally voicing his displeasure to Angle.

Remember that promo above? Finn Balor literally said, “I was the first Universal Champion. I never lost that title, and I was never given a rematch. So if it means going through 20 other superstars to get that rematch, I will. I am here to officially enter myself into the Royal Rumble match.”

Balor tried to overcome the odds to get the rematch that he is literally owed, and he came close to winning the Rumble as a member of the Final Four. But maybe it’s time for Balor to take a different approach, and he did announce his reunion with Gallows and Anderson in this exact segment with Kurt.

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So yeah, maybe there could be something boiling between these two, because, again, it’s ridiculous to think that (in storyline) Angle hasn’t given Balor a rematch for a title that he never lost more than a year later. Predicting friction between Balor and Angle would be a bold call, but it’s something worth keeping in mind because it just make sense storyline wise.