During the recent WWE Draft, the former NXT Champion, Finn Balor was chosen by Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley as the newest member of RAW. In his very first day on the main roster, Balor defeated Rusev, Kevin Owens and Cesaro in a fatal-4-way match. Later that same night, he defeated the former World Champion Roman Reigns to earn a shot at the brand new WWE Universal Championship.
Balor went on to defeat Seth Rollins at SummerSlam and became the first ever WWE Universal Champion. Although he reached to the top of the mountain within a month of his debut, the original plans were a bit different. At the biggest event of the summer, Finn was rumored to face Chris Jericho, while Roman Reigns and Rollins would have been involved in the main event action. The plans were dropped as Reigns violated the Talent Wellness Policy. WWE wanted to replace him with a popular ‘babyface’ and the opportunity came to Balor.
Unfortunately, Balor got injured in his match with Rollins. An MRI scan revealed a labrum tear which requires surgery. Hence, WWE announced that Finn Balor would not be able to compete and the title was vacated.
In the video embedded below, Balor recalls the first day after his surgery. He said the day appeared to be one of the longest in his entire life and also noted that the surgery was quite complicated. Balor mentioned that there are no chances of him returning to a wrestling in the near future – The rehab session alone will consume an estimated six months. He loves wrestling. So the longest reigning NXT Champion doesn’t know how he can stay away from the squired circle for such a long time. The shoulder injury was indeed serious and Balor realizes that, “it is going to be a long way back, maybe 180 days – 190 days”.
The sudden injury of Balor resulted in several changes with WWE’s creative plans for the Universal Championship. The ideas of Finn Balor vs Kevin Owens at Clash of Champions pay-per-view, followed by a triple threat match featuring the two along with Chris Jericho, had to be cancelled.
Next week on RAW, a fatal four way match will be contested between Kevin Owens, Big Cass, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to determine the new Champion. Although Rollins and Reigns were kept out from the title picture, it seems that one of these former SHIELD members will be the next to grab the Gold.
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