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Finn Balor is arguably one of the best in-ring performers in the WWE today, just as Paul Heyman. He was crowned as the first WWE Universal Champion, and the first to relinquish the said title. Since the injury that caused the relinquishing of his championship, Balor has found himself in many awful bookings and lacklustre feuds, ranging from being squashed by Kane to a supernatural promo war with Bray Wyatt that was hindered by backstage illness.
It's hard to see where the WWE is planning on taking Balor. Considering there have been substantial rumours that Vince McMahon simply doesn’t think Balor is “over” enough with the crowd, we doubt a major title run is in Balor’s near future, but that doesn’t mean some sort of gold isn’t far away from the horizon.
Here are the three logical places we see Finn Balor ending up soon.
#3 Team up with Gallows & Anderson
It’s not hard to notice that the WWE Universe has some serious affection for the Bullet Club. A faction that has never existed in and of itself in the WWE, any telecast of Smackdown or Raw and the front 10 rows are comprised of dozens of fans donning Bullet Club merchandise – the WWE should tap into this, and they’ve already got the players to do so.
AJ Styles is above and beyond any faction, but with Finn Balor’s recent struggles as a singles competitor, it makes perfect sense to pair him up with former Bullet Club members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson for 2018 stable that has all the makings of a dominant core. Gallows and Anderson, the Magic Killers, have undoubtedly fallen from grace in the WWE tag team landscape, but by combining their talents with Finn’s, the WWE can finally tap into the nascent interest in Bullet Club its Universe has explicitly expressed in recent months.
That, my friends, would be “too sweet.”
#2 Be one of the last four remaining in the Royal Rumble, but not win
Given Finn’s size and stature, we are not certain he fits well within the current WWE Universal or WWE Championship pictures, despite being WWE’s first Universal Champion. It’s hard to imagine Balor going head-to-head with Brock Lesnar now given Brock’s propensity to squash smaller opponents. However, his inability to compete head-to-head with Aj Styles on Smackdown Live presents a unique issue for Balor, one in which it doesn’t make much sense to win the Rumble.
If the WWE wants to establish Finn as a bonafide title contender, but not place him in and a lose-lose situation where a victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania smells cheap and unrealistic, they would have him compete valiantly at the Royal Rumble, ending up in the top 4 but losing to the likes of Roman Reigns.
Thus, Finn looks strong and can wait out until the Universal Championship is on a competitor smaller than the Beast Incarnate. A clash with Roman Reigns down the line is not unimaginable.
#1 Intercontinental Championship Win Over Samoa Joe
Out of the three scenarios played out in this entry, I find an eventual Intercontinental Championship victory over Samoa Joe at WrestleMania to be the most plausible. Finn and Joe have already established a deep disdain for one another, with the WWE Universe being treated to a number of thrilling singles competitions between the two former NXT stars leading up to 2017’s Survivor Series Pay-Per-View. The energy behind their budding feud is arguably still palpable.
With Roman Reigns likely to take home the crown at the Royal Rumble, it seems clear that Samoa Joe, through his actions on the Raw and lose partnership with Sheamus and Cesaro, is next in line to challenge Reigns for the belt. Once that storyline presents itself, nothing is holding back Balor from trying to capture the Intercontinental title and putting himself back in a Championship picture that makes sense.
We see this win over Samoa Joe happening at WrestleMania because unfortunately, our boy Balor will…
