5 reasons why Finn Balor isn't 'over' enough to face Brock Lesnar

It’s official: Brock Lesnar will put his Universal Championship on the line in a Triple Threat match against Braun Strowman and Kane at the Royal Rumble.

For the last few months, the assumption has been that Finn Balor would take on “The Beast” in January but, for reasons only known to Vince McMahon, the Irishman is reportedly not ‘over’ enough to go toe-to-toe with the Universal Champion.

Balor has had plenty of fun with the rumours on social media in recent weeks, while WWE has even released a new shirt for “The Demon King” highlighting the letters ‘OVER’ in the word ‘FOREVER’.

In this article, we attempt to lurk inside the mind of Mr. McMahon to take a look at the five main reasons why he has decided not to go ahead with a match between Lesnar and Balor at the Royal Rumble.

#5 He’s been overshadowed on Raw in 2017

Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman have been the stars of Raw this year

When Finn Balor moved to Raw in July 2016 and became Universal Champion just a month later, he quickly established himself as a performer who was ready to be at the top of the red brand’s card.

However, since his return from injury in April, Finn has been overshadowed by other people and other storylines on Monday nights – as highlighted in our recent countdown of the top 50 Raw Superstars of 2017, in which Balor finished in 13th position.

When you think of Braun Strowman’s last 12 months, his monstrous battles with Roman Reigns, Big Show and Brock Lesnar come to mind; when you think of Reigns, his wins over The Undertaker and John Cena come to mind; and when you think of Samoa Joe, his pay-per-view main events and devastating Coquina Clutch come to mind.

When you think of Balor, he’s had a good year in terms of high-quality matches on Raw but, from a storyline perspective, there just haven’t been enough standout moments in 2017 to put him on the same level as Lesnar’s other challengers on the Raw roster.

#4 He’s not had enough high-profile opponents

Finn Balor is currently feuding with Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas

While the likes of Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles all feuded with high-profile opponents before their matches with Brock Lesnar in 2017, the same can’t be said for “The Demon King”.

He’s defeated Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, Cesaro, Jason Jordan, Elias, Curt Hawkins and Jinder Mahal, among others, in singles matches on Raw in 2017, but the majority of those encounters had little-to-no meaning and certainly weren’t enough to qualify him to go toe-to-toe with “The Beast”.

His only feuds in 2017 that have lasted any serious length of time were with Elias and Bray Wyatt, both of which he defeated, while he has recently been involved in a storyline with Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel.

Balor’s only real 'statement victory' this year came in the hastily arranged match with AJ Styles at TLC. Other than that, he has largely been involved in mid-card feuds that were settled on Raw instead of on pay-per-views.

#3 The Bray Wyatt feud was disappointing

When Bray Wyatt had the Wyatt Family by his side, he feuded with the likes of The Shield and The New Day and almost every one of his rivalries lived up to or exceeded expectations.

As a singles performer, however, storylines involving Bray have consistently been underwhelming over the years. Remember his feuds with Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose in 2014? Or with Ryback and Roman Reigns in 2015? Or with Randy Orton in 2016 and 2017?

“The Eater of Worlds” is a captivating character at times but, for whatever reason, his one-on-one rivalries are regularly disappointing, and that was the case again in 2017 when he was involved in a four-month feud with Finn Balor.

Their segments on Raw were often dull and, with the exception of their match at No Mercy in September, their in-ring battles fell below the level we’ve come to expect from Balor.

#2 He’s lost clean five times in six months

Finn Balor's defeat to Kane was widely criticised

When you look at the facts, there’s no denying that Finn Balor deserves a one-on-one match for the Universal Championship. After all, he had to give the title up in August 2016 due to injury and he never actually lost it.

But when you look at the stats and the number of opponents he has been defeated by in 2017, it’s no wonder WWE doesn’t think the Irishman would be a serious enough challenger for Brock Lesnar.

In a six-month span between May and November, “The Demon King” was defeated clean by Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, Bray Wyatt, Kane and Randy Orton.

Of course, the most memorable clean loss during that time period was against 50-year-old Kane, who pinned Balor after just seven minutes on Raw in October in one of the most controversial matches of 2017.

#1 He is 'over', WWE just wants to make a story out of it

Finn Bl — Finn Balor still has plenty of fans

Finally, let’s address a conspiracy theory. There’s a school of thought out there that WWE is holding Finn Balor back from the main-event spotlight because the backlash about him not being ‘over’ will only make fans support him more and more.

If that’s the aim, it’s definitely working. A simple search of ‘Finn Balor over’ on Twitter will bring up hundreds of tweets from Finn fans, who are angry that the Irishman is not deemed popular enough by the WWE higher-ups to face Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble.

Remember when Daniel Bryan was held back again and again in the eight-month build to his WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania XXX? Well, perhaps WWE is purposely doing a similar thing with Balor, with the aim of making him the ultimate underdog.

Besides, he would almost certainly lose a one-on-one match with Lesnar if it were to take place in January, so maybe it's better for all involved if Finn's return to the main-event scene happens when he's actually got a serious chance of winning.