WWE Is Finally Building Finn Balor Up As A Top Star Again, Where He Belongs

The Jan. 14 episode of WWE Raw delivered plenty of twists, turns and shocking moments that truly did evoke something of a New Era. One of the show’s most welcomed breaths of fresh air came when Finn Balor punched in a ticket to the Royal Rumble in a title match against Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. I think we can all agree that it’s been a long time coming.

Let’s take a second to wind the clocks back to 2016 when Finn Balor made his long-awaited debut on WWE Raw. Right out of the gate, the former NXT Champion was catapulted onto the main event scene. On the night of his debut, not only did he win a Fatal Four-Way Match, he would defeat The Big Dog himself, Roman Reigns, in the main event of the show.

Some weeks later, at SummerSlam, Finn Balor would become Raw’s top dog when he defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural Universal Champion, a title introduced as Raw’s equivalent to the WWE Championship. Sadly, Balor’s day in the sun would not last for long. In fact, it would literally last a day.

The night after SummerSlam, Balor would be forced to relinquish his newfound championship because he suffered a shoulder injury in his aforementioned title match.

Credit: WWE.com

The Irish Superstar would sit out on the shelf until April 2017. We would quickly learn that upon his return, WWE no longer seemed as enthusiastic about pushing Balor to the moon as they were upon his debut. Not only did he never receive a rematch for the Universal Championship, but he has been largely absent from the main event picture these last couple years.

Balor would never even so much as receive a single shot at the Universal Title until suffering a losing effort against champion Roman Reigns on the August 20th episode of Raw. Seeing as he never received another title match since then, that was literally his single shot.

For nearly two years, it has been a long and tumultuous road back to the title for Finn Balor, but following his big win tonight, it all seems to have paid off.

Photo by WWE’s Twitter

Tonight’s episode of Raw served as WWE’s way to activate a hard reset on the Finn Balor push and finally picked up where they started two years ago. Finn’s night started off strong when he stared the Chairman of the WWE down eye to eye and expressed why he’s struggled to become a headliner again since his return: Vince McMahon never believed in him.

From there, the Irish Young Gun was put to the test. After winning a grueling match against Jinder Mahal, he would go on to compete in a Fatal Four Way main event to determine who will face Brock Lesnar for his Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble.

In a match that featured big bad Baron Corbin, a 6’5 Glasgow monster in Drew McIntyre, and Mr. WWE himself, John Cena, Balor would come out on top by getting a clean pin over the 16-time World Champion. As if that wasn’t big enough, Cena shook Balor’s hand and raised it after the match. Can’t think of a better way to put a guy over than that.

Much like during the night of his debut, Finn Balor won two matches in one night; one of which was even a Fatal Four Way. History repeats itself, but somehow, much like Balor, history returns at a higher voltage than before. In turn, Balor’s win seems even bigger. Not only because the players involved are bigger opponents, but because of Balor’s 2-year struggle to return to prominence, the win feels even more satisfying.

One big thing that Balor highlighted during his promo against Vince McMahon was that even when the Chairman didn’t believe in him, the fans never stopped supporting Finn Balor. This is just as big of a night for Balor’s club of fans as it is for Balor himself. Even if Balor doesn’t wind up beating Lesnar at the Royal Rumble, let’s never forget that it was Balor’s strong following and the determination of his fans to get Balor back atop the mountain where he belongs.

A few weeks ago, on the Dec.17 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon promised that he will start listening to the fans from now on regarding what we wanted as an “authority.” Seeing WWE finally restart Balor’s push makes us believe they actually are listening to what we want and we couldn’t be happier.