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Finn Balor made a massive return to WWE Smackdown after more than two years. His arrival on the main roster garnered more attention after he boldly challenged the Blue brand’s biggest heel, Roman Reigns, for the Universal Championship match. The Tribal Chief accepted, and now, we have a much-anticipated rivalry on our hands.
However, it feels like we have been here before. We have seen Balor’s meteoric rise and dreadful falls on the main roster before. In hindsight, some of the elements from his previous booking come across as a major shock today. There is no denying that many errors were made during his first run on the main roster, and WWE desperately needs to avoid repeating the same.
Finn Balor is one of those superstars who is organically over with the crowd. WWE doesn’t need to invest in building the connection between him and the crowd. Instead, they only have to focus on booking him well so that both can benefit from capitalizing on his potential. Here, we look at some of the biggest mistakes that WWE should avoid repeating with Finn Balor’s current run on SmackDown.
#5 Stagnating Finn Balor’s push or moving him to the sidelines
Back in 2016, Finn Balor made one of the best main roster debuts in WWE history. He was fresh from a career-defining run on NXT that led to the whole pro wrestling fraternity hailing him as one of the best performers in the previous year. He was the fifth overall pick in the 2016 WWE Draft and headed to the Red brand with high hopes for his career.
Balor was already over with the crowd, and he was immediately pushed into the world championship picture. At the time, WWE had just introduced the Universal Championship. He found himself competing to get his hands on the gold. Unfortunately for him, he sustained a serious shoulder injury during the match against Seth Rollins that would eventually see him become the inaugural Universal Champion in WWE.
Balor gave the go-ahead to continue the match despite a dislocated shoulder. In the following episode, he was forced to relinquish the title and take time to recover. When Finn Balor returned after a long break, things were completely different. It appeared that WWE had huge reservations about reinvesting in his push.
Either he was booked for one-off encounters or was used in underwhelming feuds to get other superstars over. Balor deserves credit for still managing to keep fans interested in his run. However, his run turned monotonous when his television appearances were limited to storylines that would end abruptly. He would also spend a lot of time on the sidelines, even when there was a desperate need to create new rivalries.
WWE must ensure that this doesn’t happen again on SmackDown. His credibility takes a significant blow every time the creative team pushes him for a few weeks and then pulls the plug on the entire idea. Balor can be a very entertaining performer, and the crowd’s cheer in his support is the biggest proof of that statement.
At the very least, Finn Balor should be involved in well-constructed feuds that play to his strengths. He can help create superstars inside the ring while delivering engaging rivalries simultaneously. He can quickly establish himself as a big threat on the WWE SmackDown roster, provided he is booked strongly.
#4 Limiting Finn Balor to small roles in big feuds
One of the biggest concerns regarding Finn Balor is his apparent role on the main roster. Despite his potential, he was often limited to being a catalyst in bigger feuds during his previous run on the main roster. It is difficult to comprehend why no one on the creative team could ever write an engaging storyline surrounding Balor when NXT did it flawlessly for two years.
He was still helping out the NXT Championship picture by feuding with most of the challengers. However, Finn Balor didn’t look weak in any of them and still managed to get everyone over with the viewers. It also allowed him to come across as a credible threat himself, leading to his second championship reign on the Black and Gold brand.
Balor should be involved in big feuds on WWE SmackDown, and there are plenty of opponents for him on the Blue brand. Last week, Balor hugged Kevin Owens in the ring, and the entire arena went wild. The entire crowd started chanting “Roman’s scared” when the Universal Champion was hesitant about accepting Balor’s challenge this week.
The WWE Universe certainly wants to see him involved in big feuds, and it should happen on SmackDown. It is high time that the promotion puts more faith in Finn Balor’s ability to carry big storylines.
#3 Finn Balor is ruled out as a credible threat from the world title picture
There is no denying that Finn Balor doesn’t fit the traditional mold of WWE Champions. But the world of pro wrestling is different today.
While superstars like Drew McIntyre, Roman Reigns, and Bobby Lashley look like conventional titleholders, one can’t forget that superstars like Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles were also hailed as iconic champions. The pro wrestling business has evolved, and so should their booking practices.
After Balor was forced to relinquish his Universal Championship, he was never really billed as a credible threat in the world championship picture. It was a huge mistake then, and it would be blasphemous to repeat the same on SmackDown this time. He has challenged Roman Reigns to a title match, and this is the best time for the creative team to make up for previous blunders.
Balor should be pushed as a big challenge in this match without compromising his gimmick. He can be an anti-hero and still have the crowd cheer for him. WWE may decide to book a triple-threat match between Roma Reigns, Finn Balor, and John Cena at SummerSlam 2021. If that happens, Balor will most likely take the pin, and that could be disastrous.
Roman Reigns has only defeated a couple of his opponents in a clean fashion. He shouldn’t beat Balor without a bit of help from either The Usos or someone else. It is unlikely that Balor will dethrone Reigns as the Universal Champion, but WWE can strike gold with these booking decisions.
The difference in size between Roman Reigns and Finn Balor guarantees an exciting dynamic during an in-ring bout. If WWE are worried about booking Balor as fighting champion, now would be a good time to bring up the fact that he can have good matches with someone like AJ Styles without any preparation.
He can also tear the house down when facing someone like Brock Lesnar. WWE can use a versatile champion like him somewhere down the line.
#2 Finn Balor constantly pushed in matches with underwhelming finishes
There was a time when Finn Balor appeared regularly on WWE RAW. The only problem was that everyone knew that he would perform well but would lose after a surprise roll-up pinfall. Each of his matches looked underwhelming, which effectively started toying with his push every week. WWE cannot let that happen again, especially given the plethora of talent on SmackDown’s roster.
Look at this week’s episode for the perfect example. Finn Balor faced Sami Zayn in a highly entertaining match. Both superstars were given enough time to showcase their strengths, and they delivered a well-balanced match that made them look strong. Balor needs more bookings like this. All his jaw-dropping performances will amount to nothing if he starts taking meaningless losses once again.
This is not to say that Balor should win every match on SmackDown. At least the finish should be solid so that it doesn’t take a toll on his overall credibility. WWE can use someone like Finn Balor to create good rivalries without involving a title in each one of them.
As of now, the entire focus is on how he is booked against Roma Reigns. Everything Balor does in the coming weeks will show us if WWE is prepared to capitalize on his momentum appropriately.
#1 Finn Balor is turned into a boring babyface
It is, and we cannot stress this enough, the biggest mistake involving Finn Balor on the main roster. There are not enough words to articulate the disaster it would be to turn Balor into a boring babyface once again. His underwhelming run on RAW in early 2019 quickly turned into a memorable run as “The Prince” on NXT, thanks to his heel turn.
The best part about Finn Balor’s current gimmick is that it will allow him to feud with both faces and heels. He doesn’t need an alliance, and it adds an element of surprise as the viewers keep guessing his next move.
Finn Balor’s current character is perfect, and WWE should refrain from making any changes to it, at least for a few months. His promos are better now, and his subtle antics during the match do well in adding to his anti-hero persona.
Balor was often booked as a good guy who falls prey to the bad guy’s tricks. The tables have turned now that everyone is forced to play by Finn Balor’s book. There is no reason why he should revert to a rather dull run that nearly ruined his character on the main roster the last time.
WWE also tends to book him weakly in order to make his alter-ego “The Demon King” look strong. While the idea is good, the execution couldn’t be worse. It ends up making Finn Balor look extremely weak and highly reliant on a “better” persona.
On the other hand, the Demon King’s appearances should be limited to cases when Balor really has no other option left but to face impossible odds. This will help maintain the mysticism surrounding the popular Demon King persona.
Finn Balor could be a huge asset for WWE Smackdown, which has turned itself into the A-show in all of pro wrestling. It is essential that the creative team refrains from repeating huge mistakes with one of their best performers. Hopefully, we will see the Irish superstar enjoy the push that he deserves.
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