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Aside from Vince McMahon, perhaps the biggest contributions to WWE came from his daughter Stephanie McMahon, and her husband Triple H. During a recent interview, the inaugural Universal Champion of the Stamford-based promotion, Finn Bálor, detailed his noteworthy LGBTQ+ entrance at WrestleMania 34.
Being his debut on The Grandest Stage of Them All, The Prince was asked whether he was hoping to make an entrance as his alter-ego, The Demon. However, he opted to use the opportunity to have a pro-LGBTQ+ entrance.
“I remember in the build-up to ‘Mania, I’d been asked it a lot. ‘Are you gonna do The Demon’?; 'Are we gonna do The Demon’?; 'How are we gonna do this?’ I remember having this idea to do this, and a lot of people were kind of, ‘Oh, you gotta definitely do The Demon, it’s WrestleMania. It’s your first WrestleMania. You gotta do that entrance.’ I remember thinking, ‘I think I got something that’s cooler, that’s more important, to use the platform as a voice for change,’” said Bálor.
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Bálor pitched the idea to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, who did not need to think twice before giving him the green light. Furthermore, they helped the former Universal Champion get in touch with the LGBTQ+ community in New Orleans. Some members of the community also appeared at The Show of Shows that year.
“It was about three weeks before ‘Mania, and I brought it to Hunter [Triple H] and Stephanie [McMahon], and they jumped on it straight away and said, ‘100%, you can do that.’ They helped me get in touch with the LGBT+ community in New Orleans, and they were actually members of the community from there. They weren’t extras or anything like that. It was legit having them up on stage. For me, that was a more important moment than any Demon entrance could have ever been,” claimed Bálor. [H/T: Fightful]
He and Seth Rollins challenged Intercontinental Champion The Miz on The Grandest Stage of Them All in 2018. The three WWE Superstars set the bar very high in the opening contest, making it hard for the rest of the athletes to follow. They tore the roof down before Rollins finally walked away with the gold.
The Judgment Day has trouble coming their way on WWE RAW
World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest opened up recently about his long road to the top of the mountain in WWE. He has shown glimmers of a strong babyface of late, albeit continuing as a heel for the time being. Meanwhile, his frustrations are only growing with The Judgment Day.
Dirty Dom messed up repeatedly with Liv Morgan, leading to the latter becoming the Women's World Champion last week in the Saudi Arabia PLE. Furthermore, she kissed him on RAW after getting his help yet again. WWE has advertised her for the upcoming episode as she is expected to address what transpired in the closing moments of last week's show.
As for Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh, they failed to regain the World Tag Team Championship for the faction from the Awesome Truth. How all of this plays out on WWE TV in the coming weeks bears watching.
Rhea Ripley will certainly be out for a while, and Damian Priest has a title defense in less than two weeks against Drew McIntyre in Glasgow, Scotland.
