It is now all but official, The Demon King Finn Balor, who was injured at the hands of Seth Rollins on 21st August, 2016 during their match at Summerslam, is finally making his way back to WWE television after being away from it for seven long months.
Finn Balor made appearances on the Toronto and Buffalo Live Events this past weekend. He competed in tag team matches on both the shows and it seemed like the appearances were booked to help him shake off the ring rust before he made his return to Raw.
Here’s a tweet by Balor himself, confirming his return:
He might be making his return to WWE television as early as Raw tonight, but who will he feud with? What will he do? Who could be his possible opponents? Let’s try and find out.
Balor was the first WWE Universal Champion, a title that he had to relinquish merely after having held on to it for one day, but now that he is returning to WWE TV, would he be going for it right away? I don’t think so.
Balor has a lot of unfinished business with a lot of people in the WWE, but since we’re only two weeks away from WrestleMania 33, there isn’t a lot of time for the WWE to book a new feud for him.
When Balor was in the WWE, he had a storyline going on with Seth Rollins, but Rollins was always going to eventually transition into a WrestleMania 33 match against Triple H.
Seeing as how Rollins is not only a face now (like Balor) but has also been taken out with an injury himself, there is no way that there could be a program happening between him and Balor anymore, not for WrestleMania 33 at least.
However, there is a way, and this is probably the direction that the WWE Creative are going to take, in which Balor could utilise his history with Rollins, his Universal Championship pursuits as well as his babyface position in the WWE to conjure up a feud which would be well worthy of a spot on the WrestleMania 33 card.
Enter Samoa Joe.
Joe, who made his main roster debut on the Raw after Royal Rumble, did so in a highly intimidating manner as he took out Seth Rollins with a vicious beatdown, followed by a Coquina clutch. Joe actually ended up injuring Rollins in real life as a result of the assault, and Rollins was thus taken out of action indefinitely.
Even though the Rollins has promised that he would be making a full recovery by WrestleMania, it is obvious that he will not be taking on Samoa Joe to avenge his injury, but rather, his opponent for WrestleMania 33 would be Triple H, as had been planned all along.
Samoa Joe, on the other hand, had a really good match with Sami Zayn at Fastlane 2017. The reason for the match was a disagreement that Zayn and Joe had over Joe’s choice of words in an interview, where he had described Zayn as being pretty much incompetent.
That storyline, or the lack of it, however, appears to have come to an end with the match at Fastlane, which Joe had ended up winning.
Also read: 5 WrestleMania 33 opponents for Finn Balor
So this leaves Samoa Joe without an opponent at WrestleMania 33. Joe needs someone to fight with, and who could possibly be a better option to fill in as his WrestleMania opponent than the Demon King, Finn Balor himself?
Most people might not realise this but by way of Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe might have legitimate grounds for a feud.
When Rollins had gotten injured, Balor not only sent him a “get well soon” message on Twitter, but had also posted a picture of them together, which signified that not only was there no bad blood between them anymore but that Balor and Rollins were actually on good terms with each other now.
The pictures posted were as follows:
Keeping this in mind, we can expect Finn Balor to make his return on Raw and call out Samoa Joe for injuring Seth Rollins.
Samoa Joe and Finn Balor actually have had some history on NXT, where the two were initially friends but ended up becoming rivals after Joe turned on Balor. It was upon the conclusion of this feud that Balor had actually made his debut on the main roster.
Balor can cut a promo, talking about how he understood the implications and consequences of getting injured in professional wrestling, making a reference to his injury at Summerslam. He can then go on to talk about how even though Rollins caused him to get injured, he didn’t mean for it to happen, but Samoa Joe did.
He can then call Samoa Joe out for deliberately injuring Seth Rollins and for being malicious enough to put him out for weeks.
Joe can then come out and proceed to get into a scuffle with Balor. Balor, hot on his return, can overpower Joe with his fast-paced athleticism and beat him down. Joe could then slide out, retreat from the ring and the two can stare each other down, causing a match to be made at WrestleMania 33.
Here’s a promo from the past rivalry that Joe and Balor had in NXT, just to give you a feel of what this confrontation could possibly be like:
The reason why this feud makes so much sense is because the only top-tier opponent for Balor, who is without a match at WrestleMania 33 currently, is Samoa Joe. There is no one else, save for the exception of Braun Strowman.
Then again, there is literally no reason for Strowman and Balor to feud with each other right now, especially on such short notice, which leaves us with Samoa Joe as the only option that makes sense.
It goes without saying that Samoa Joe and Finn Balor are two of the best wrestlers in the world right now, and if the WWE doesn’t restrict them at WrestleMania, then the two can indeed put on a display of some of the best wrestling ever seen in a WWE ring at the Grandest Stage of Them All.
With the past rivalry, the injury angle and the Rollins factor, this feud could definitely give the WWE Universe something amazing to look forward to at WrestleMania 33 and should the WWE take this approach going forward, fans would definitely be in for a treat!
I, for one, certainly hope that this happens, just a few hours until we find out!
Send us news tips at [email protected]
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
