What’s the story?
In an interview given to News.com.au, Finn Balor said that he was cleared to wrestle by the medical staff weeks prior to WrestleMania 33 and that he didn't perform at the event because there was no space for him on the card.
In case you didn’t know...
Finn Balor was injured at SummerSlam 2016 in a match with Seth Rollins. The match was meant to decide the first-ever winner of the WWE Universal Championship. Despite being injured, the Demon King completed the match and became the first WWE Universal Champion.
Balor came out on Raw the next night, however, and was forced to relinquish his title on account of his injuries. He was subsequently out of action for 6 months and only returned to WWE television on the episode of Raw after WrestleMania 33.
The heart of the matter
During the interview, Balor spoke about a number of topics, including his injury at SummerSlam.
Balor stated during the interview that he knew the injury was bad almost immediately after he sustained it, but was determined to finish the match. Balor said that he didn’t want to be remembered as “the guy who blew an opportunity at SummerSlam” and thus pulled his arm “back into place” and finished the match.
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Balor said that he has no regrets about continuing and finishing the match. He was quoted as saying:
“I wasn’t about to sacrifice many years of hard work for a little bit of a scratch on the shoulder. Obviously, it turned out a lot worse than first expected, but the show must go on and I’m glad I did what I did.”
Balor ended up missing out on WrestleMania 33 due to his injury, however, he stated during the interview that he was medically cleared to wrestle “weeks prior to the event”. Balor clarified that the only reason he didn’t return at WrestleMania was that there was no space on the card.
He was quoted as saying:
“It was quite an interesting scenario, because the reality was I actually was fit and I was ready and I was back wrestling, there was just no space on the card at WrestleMania,” Balor revealed.
Obviously I had done my part in the rehabilitation, but it was kind of too late situating anything to do with the card. There was literally no space left, no opponents left, that was the reality of it.”
What’s next?
Finn Balor has been wrestling on the RAW brand ever since his return from injury. He has stated that he would like to have a shot at the Universal title since he technically never lost it in the first place.
Even though Balor hasn’t been booked for a match at the next RAW-exclusive Great Balls of Fire Pay Per View as of yet, the card is still incomplete, and Balor might be added to a match soon.
Author’s take
Finn Balor’s determination to finish the SummerSlam match despite the extensive nature of his injuries is absolutely admirable. It is, however, unfortunate that he missed WrestleMania 33. His inclusion on the card would have made the show a much better spectacle purely due to his presence.
However, Balor is still on the up and up despite missing out on WrestleMania 33, and I’m sure that he will have a strap around his waist very soon.
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