Finn Bálor’s sudden world title shot exposes a frustrating WWE shortcut

Finn Bálor is getting a World Heavyweight Championship match against CM Punk in Belfast on the January 19 edition of Monday Night Raw, and on paper? That sounds like a party.

Bálor in front of his people. Punk in a big-match spotlight. And a world title match on TV. And yet the second you stop clapping and actually look at what WWE is asking you to believe, the whole thing starts wobbling like a folding chair with one leg missing.

Because what, exactly, did Finn Bálor do to earn this?

Not “what has Finn done in his career,” because we can talk about the body of work. The man is an indie darling, a fan favorite even when he’s being a menace, and still one of the cleanest, most precise wrestlers walking the earth. Bálor isn’t washed. He’s a technical marvel.

WWE’s contender problem gets louder with Finn Bálor’s sudden title match

But WWE doesn’t want you thinking about that Finn Bálor right now. WWE wants you thinking about today’s Finn Bálor. The guy currently stuck in a Judgment Day story that moves slower than a snail crossing a treadmill.

So if we’re playing WWE’s favorite game — “what have you done for me lately?” — the answer is brutal: almost nothing.

According to cagematch.net, Bálor’s last televised singles win came on January 9, 2025 against Dragon Lee. Before that? March 6, 2024, also over Dragon Lee. That's the punchline.

Since the calendar turned to 2024, Bálor is 2-17 in televised singles matches, with the only pinfall victories coming against the same opponent. And if you want to be generous and toss in house shows too? 2-19-1. So it’s not like he’s a secret assassin when the cameras are off — he’s just…still losing, everywhere, all the time.

Now in 2026, we’re supposed to buy that “the guy who has Dragon Lee’s number” is about to dethrone CM Punk. How?

Outside of pure wishcasting, this is the kind of logic that only works if you don’t think about it for more than three seconds — and WWE is banking on you not thinking because hey, big names! hometown! title match! OMG!

Meanwhile, CM Punk has been booked like an actual world champion-level threat. He’s beaten real names. Bron Breakker. Gunther. Jey Uso.

Here’s the part that makes it sting: those three guys have pinned Finn Bálor in the last year.

So Punk beats the guys who beat Bálor… and Bálor gets the title shot anyway. That’s not an organic contender’s rise; that’s a shortcut. It’s WWE doing the thing they do way too often: skipping the hard part — the building, the stacking, the “oh wait, he might actually do this” momentum — and jumping straight to the poster. The wild part is they didn’t have to do it like this.

If WWE wanted Belfast to explode, they had an easy recipe: put Bálor on a collision course and let him start stacking wins. Not even a months-long epic — just a clear run that says, “Finn is dangerous again.” Let Punk keep being Punk and make the match feel inevitable instead of random.

Instead, this has the energy of: “Oh yeah, we’re going to Belfast… should we do something with Finn?”

WWE didn’t just undercut the title match — they undercut Bálor. Because when you hand a wrestler a championship opportunity with no heat, no momentum, and no justification, you aren’t elevating them. You’re quietly telling the audience, “Don’t take this seriously.” You’re asking fans to care while giving them no reason to invest. 

Yes, Belfast is going to be awesome. Finn fans should absolutely enjoy the spectacle. A hometown main event is a rare, special thing, and Bálor has earned that moment as a performer.

But WWE’s booking? That’s the part that hasn’t earned anything. If this is the standard — if title shots are just granted because someone walks out and asks — then the belt isn’t a prize; it’s a prop. Further, the challengers aren’t threats; they’re placeholders.

WWE can fix this fast by starting to protect contenders again. Make wins matter, and make the climb part of the story, not an inconvenience you skip because you’ve got a plane ticket to Belfast.

When you’ve got Finn Bálor and CM Punk in the same ring with a world title on the line, the bare minimum is making it feel like it didn’t happen by accident.