Finn Balor ‘The Man’ Evolving Into A Force Should Be The Story Of The Baron Corbin Feud

For months, Finn Balor’s feud with Baron Corbin on WWE Raw has trudged onwards without an apparent ending in sight. It seemed like Balor had Corbin defeated for good after a convincing win by “The Demon” at SummerSlam, and he challenged Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship one day later. But Corbin and Balor are still locked in a feud after Corbin called out “The Man” and not “The Demon”.

We’ve seen this play out before. A heel wrestler calls out Finn Balor for being nothing without “The Demon” after losing to that version of his character at SummerSlam. Remember that disastrous Balor vs. Bray Wyatt feud last year that ended up with an insane Balor vs. AJ Styles match at TLC instead? Well, WWE have somewhat went back to the same well this year with Balor’s program against Constable Baron Corbin.

Now the acting GM, Corbin abused his powers on the most recent episode of Monday Night Raw to get a win over Balor. He hit Balor with a steel chair in the middle of the match, but overturned the disqualification finish by explaining that he forgot to announce that the match was a No DQ bout. He ended up defeating Balor with the End of Days to avenge his loss to “The Demon” at SummerSlam.

Just like Wyatt, Corbin created this match by calling out Balor as being nothing without “The Demon”. He’s just the latest heel to question whether or not “The Man” behind “The Demon” is capable of competing at the highest level.

Although the matches between Balor and Corbin haven’t been inherently bad, the fans have grown tired of this feud. It feels like there’s no point to the back-and-forth between these two. It started with Corbin insulting Balor’s size in what was essentially an even worse repeat of the Big Cass/Daniel Bryan feud on SmackDown Live, and it turned into Corbin being a sore loser over his embarrassing loss to The Demon in Brooklyn.

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There’s only one way to salvage this feud, and it involves WWE doing something they probably won’t do: Book the “regular” version of Finn Balor as strongly as they book “The Demon”.

We know that Balor is at his strongest when he is “The Demon”. He’s never lost as “The Demon”, and his offense is more dangerous, more vicious, stronger, and quicker when he enters this unstoppable form.

The problem is that at a certain point, Balor needs to have a response to the heels who call him out for being nothing without “The Demon”. Corbin keeps going after Balor, simply because he thinks he can bully Balor around without him assuming the Demon persona.

The only way for the Balor/Corbin feud to tell a meaningful story that gives a justifiable payoff for Corbin’s underhanded actions on the most recent episode of Raw is for Balor to squash Corbin. Yes, he needs to defeat Corbin without “The Demon” character as rapidly as he defeated Corbin with “The Demon” character.

While the worry here is that this may devalue “The Demon”, I don’t think that’ll be the case. See, the aura of “The Demon” as an undefeated, “End Boss” version of Balor remains unchanged, because the aesthetics of the character and the literal way his moves change in the ring will still be unique to that character. It will still feel like a super bad-ass version of Balor.

But Balor still needs to be a bad-ass when he isn’t “The Demon”, and this is the perfect opportunity for “The Man” Finn Balor to evolve as a character. Michael Cole likes to talk about Balor’s talent, guts, and resilience on commentary, which we can mildly interpret as rhetoric influenced by Vince McMahon. Some fans worry that Vince doesn’t value Balor, but if that were actually the case, why was he made the first Universal Champion? Why does he get cool and expensive merchandise on the WWE Shop? Why has “The Demon” never lost?

Finn is valued, and he confirmed his value to all those watching with his scintillating Universal Title bout against Roman Reigns, Yes, he lost to Reigns, but “The Big Dog” is destined to hold that championship for a long time after memorably ending Brock Lesnar’s borderline-illegal control of the belt. Furthermore, Finn only lost at the last second when Reigns dodged a Coup de Grace, and you could argue that by standing in there neck-and-neck as “The Man”, Balor did quietly take that next step. He’s beaten Reigns before, and he nearly did it again with the biggest prize on the line.

Balor vs. Corbin looks poised to finish at Hell in a Cell,  since Corbin stole a win from Balor on Raw. Overall, these two are 2-2, but both of Balor’s wins were on Pay Per View. He’s guaranteed to make it a third at Hell in a Cell.

On a loaded HIAC card, WWE doesn’t have time to dedicate much to this Corbin vs. Finn match. Few people care about it right now, because they’ve seen these two wrestle frequently on Raw in longer matches and aren’t invested in the story. But what is worth hoping for is a strong pay-off where Balor convincingly defeats Corbin without “The Demon” to prove once and for all that he’s plenty dangerous without the character that gives him a special boost.

WWE needs to keep evolving Balor’s character, because he has a world of potential. They have a chance to create a real takeaway from his feud with Corbin that will serve as a launching pad for Balor’s character, which people will remember more than the boredom of the program itself. That’s one potential development worth keeping an eye on this September.