WWE: What a Feud with Drew McIntyre Could Mean for Finn Balor

On the November 5th, 2018 episode of Raw, Drew McIntyre seemingly saved Finn Balor from a beatdown courtesy of Bobby Lashley, only for McIntyre to lay Balor out himself. A week later, their feud continues, with Balor picking up a win over McIntyre’s mate, Dolph Ziggler.

The program could not come at a better time for Balor. Wherever this rivalry with Drew McIntyre goes and regardless of who walks out of the program as the victor, it is sure to do wonders for Balor’s career going forward. It’s the best thing that WWE’s given him in a long time.

For a long time now, Finn Balor’s WWE career has been in something of a rut. In fact, it’s been in a rut practically since he arrived to the main roster. He started off hot by defeating Roman Reigns during his first night on Raw, and then becoming the first Universal Champion in the company’s history at SummerSlam. Unfortunately, he’d sustain an injury that would force him to vacate the title the next day.

Since then, Balor’s struggled to regain all of that momentum he’s lost. He still manages to find himself in a big time match every now and again (i.e. this year’s Mania IC Title match, or last year’s Fatal 5-Way main event from Extreme Rules), but simply being in big time matches stops meaning anything when Balor is never winning them.

Balor has spent most of 2018 having uneventful feuds with Baron Corbin, and then Bobby Lashley. In both feuds, the average episode of Raw saw Finn Balor getting decimated most of the time. That kind of booking could have made for a compelling underdog story for Balor, but because he would have a match against Corbin or Lashley virtually every week without any story progression, fans never cared.

Truth be told, Balor hasn’t accomplished anything since winning the Universal Championship and holding it for one day. It’s been the one nugget he’s held onto for over two years now as his only stroke of credibility. That luster is starting to wear off, and he no longer feels like the main event worthy first ever Universal Champion that walked out off SummerSlam 2016. He’s starting to feel like nothing but another guy on the roster.

This feud with Drew McIntyre could change all of that. McIntyre is currently positioned as the top heel on Monday Night Raw; other than Brock Lesnar – of course – Raw’s top heel champion who rarely makes an appearance. As a recurring top heel, McIntyre feels like a special commodity and his segments feel like must see television for his viewers. As a result, anybody who he shares a ring with automatically feels and looks important to the viewer.

For far too long, Finn Balor has felt like a low-tier mid-carder. Drew McIntyre could be just the guy to sprinkle some of his special star dust onto Finn Balor and make the former Universal Champion feel like a top guy again.