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Finn Balor and Kyle O'Reilly were involved in a bloody NXT Championship match at NXT TakeOver 31. Balor managed to retain his title at the end of a grueling title showdown, that saw both men walk away with injuries.
Bryan Alvarez has now revealed on the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Live that Finn Balor made the call to end the match earlier than it's scheduled finish.
Speculation is that the match might have had a few more moves and sequences that would have ultimately led to the Coupe de Grace finish. However, considering the injuries suffered by both competitors, Finn Balor went off script and called an audible to end the match a few minutes earlier than expected.
Here's what Alvarez noted about the finish of the match:
"It appeared that he called for the match to go home early. If you watched the match and didn't know about the injuries, the finish quite frankly did just come out of nowhere. They were doing the match. Everything was going along great, and all of a sudden Finn Balor starts going up to the top rope, and at that exact moment my stream froze, and I was irritated because I thought, well, clearly they are going a little bit longer here. It makes no sense to jump off right now and ping the guy. But when my stream back on, he was standing there with the bell. So, they went home a little bit early; I don't know how early, but that's what happened last night."
Injury updates on Finn Balor and Kyle O'Reilly
Regarding the injuries suffered by Finn Balor and Kyle O'Reilly, Alvarez revealed that the NXT Champion might have broken his jaw, but that has not been confirmed as of this writing.
O'Reilly also thankfully didn't suffer a severe injury as the initial fear was a concussion. O'Reilly's condition is said to be OK following the NXT TakeOver 31 main event.
WWE put the following update regarding the injuries:
The main event of NXT TakeOver 31 was a brutal, hard-hitting battle for the NXT Championship between Finn Bálor and Undisputed ERA's Kyle O'Reilly. In the aftermath of the grueling main event, it has become evident that both Superstars are worse for wear. O'Reilly has a number of broken teeth as a result of the fight with The Prince, WWE.com has learned. O'Reilly is also being evaluated for additional injuries. WWE.com can also report that Bálor has been taken to a local medical facility for CAT scans to determine if he suffered potential facial fractures in his successful title defense.
