WWE Royal Rumble: Is Finn Balor Headed For A Heroic Loss?

Finn Balor will take on Brock Lesnar at the WWE Royal Rumble Pay Per View in what will surely be the opportunity of a lifetime. But is Balor merely destined to lose, as himself, against The Beast Incarnate?

Over the past couple of years, Brock Lesnar produced two of the most memorable matches of his legendary career against much smaller opponents in AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. At the WWE Royal Rumble Pay Per View next Sunday, Lesnar has a chance to match – or even exceed – that caliber of a match against Finn Balor.

Lesnar reportedly wanted to face Balor in a Universal Title match at the Rumble, even though his originally scheduled opponent was Braun Strowman. Of course, Strowman is nursing an elbow injury, and he’s already faced Lesnar multiple times, including losing in a Triple Threat match at last year’s Royal Rumble.

Meanwhile, this will be Balor’s first time facing “The Beast”. Given the high stakes of this match, many fans are expecting Balor to enter this match as “The Demon”. Our Raphael Garcia believes he’d have more than just a fighting chance if that is the case. Finn, of course, last appeared as this ever-popular version of his character at SummerSlam, squashing Baron Corbin.

However, Finn himself casted doubt on whether or not he will actually appear as “The Demon”. Now, before I share the quote he gave to ESPN’s Tim Fiorvanti, it’s important to remember that Balor could easily be throwing us off the trail here. After all, it is wrestling, and it would be just like Balor to play coy with us, reaching into Chris Jericho’s bag of “diversion” tricks.

For what it’s worth, Balor said,

"“I feel like maybe I leaned on the demon too much there in the past as a crutch, and I can assure you that the man who faces Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble will be Finn Balor, the man. I think a lot of people were surprised when I came out at WrestleMania not in demon paint but I feel like I had a bigger message to spread that day — one of equality and acceptance. Honestly, this match just kind of came about so fast that I haven’t had much time to think about it. I don’t have any new gear, I don’t have any new looks, I don’t have any new ideas right now, but you know, we’re still six days away, so I’m sure I’ll come up with something.”"

Perhaps more insight will be share on Raw tonight, one week after Balor pinned John Cena in a Fatal Four-Way main event to earn this incredible opportunity. Balor may be showing too much hubris here, wanting to fight Lesnar as “himself” without relying on “The Demon” as a crutch, but it is an honorable statement from the first-ever Universal Champion.

If Balor does head into his match against Lesnar at WWE Royal Rumble as his extraordinary self, he’ll be the heavy underdog. Though fans are believing in Balor, with some encouragement from WWE, the fact that he was technically a replacement option for Braun decreases the odds. And it would also make sense for the winner of the Rumble, perhaps Seth Rollins, to defeat Brock in a star-making WrestleMania 35 performance.

So while it is absolutely worth rooting hard for Balor to win as “The Demon” – and completely shock us in the process – he could still emerge as one of the biggest winners of a stacked Rumble weekend in defeat.

When Bryan and Styles took Lesnar to the limit, they left fans in awe, and they were talking about the match as a classic weeks later. Balor vs. Lesnar has even more build to it and even more fans behind Balor, whose only other big opportunity for the Universal Title (since relinquishing said title) came on the night after SummerSlam this past August.

That match against Roman Reigns was fantastic, and Balor sets a high bar whenever he’s in a big match. His bout against Lesnar will be arguably the biggest of his WWE main roster career, and a valiant effort from the non-demon Balor, which would protect “The Demon” from a heart-breaking loss, could still do plenty to boost Finn’s already-high stock in 2019.