#1 Finn Balor

While competing for NWA Empire in front of a sparse crowd in New York, Bryan faced a young upstart that would later come to be known as Finn Balor, who at the time was competing under his real name of Fergal Devitt.
The match began with the men showing mutual respect for one another. It started simple enough with a collar and elbow tie-up, and Bryan leaning Devitt into the ropes and turnbuckle on a couple of occasions.
The younger DeVitt was being played up as a heel to the crowd because Bryan had spent time on the New York independents which made him an easy favourite for the fans to cheer. Devitt played heelish-ly to the crowd, and at times looked to get the advantage on the former Ring of Honor champion through questionable means.
At times the men were able to go counter-for-counter with one another. The technically skilled Bryan had Balor tied up on more than one occasion with various manoeuvres including the body scissors.
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