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What's the difference between Finn Balor and Roman Reigns?

9K views 85 replies 63 participants last post by  Saved_masses 
#1 · (Edited)
First off, this isn't a comparison thread. This is about fan response to the two, despite their similarities.

Anyway...
Both guys have been made to look unstoppable since the beginning of their push.
Both guys have been the face of the main event as the quality of the show declines.
Both guys are favourites of bookers and management. Reigns of Vince, Balor of HHH.
Both guys are devoid of character and suck on the microphone.
Both guys' only redeeming trait is "never give up".


The difference is, I assume from the years of reading posts in this subforum, that Balor is a better wrestler than Reigns, or receives better booking, and is therefore more entertaining.

However that seems entirely untrue.

Firstly, Reigns has been in a storyline against the Authority for months. This stuff has been played out for a while and everything makes sense even if it seems rushed or imbalanced. Though you might not enjoy it, it at least is a story.

Balor on the other hand is THE shoehorn champion, and NXT Championship booking is horrible. Contenders are decided through random thrown together matches that often ignore the feuds on the undercard, or for attacking the champion or showing some kind of anger. There's no denying this is lazy.

The other is simple. Since Balor has joined WWE he has been in the "workrate" zone - NXT - and has yet to have a match as good as any of Roman Reigns' top few matches in 2015.


So why exactly do people like Balor and loathe Reigns?

I certainly understand the disdain people have for Reigns based on the fact he's literally a corporate champion - being handpicked to run the show in the absence of a greater name like Cena. But Balor is clearly the same, and despite having years and years more experience, hasn't proven himself to be any better than Reigns in any way since debuting.


Shouldn't we all be booing Balor?

The fanbase that vehemently dislikes Reigns is also a huge majority of the NXT fanbase.

Shouldn't we be cheering and rooting for someone like Corbin?
Or dare I say... Tye Dillinger?​
Corbin has improved substantially, deserves an opportunity (even if that is just a 1v1 for the title in a loss), and is clearly underrepresented by the NXT fanbase as a whole.
 
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#69 · (Edited)
That's it essentially. Both are good looking and boring. Balor can wrestle very well and Reigns can wrestle very averagely.

Honestly, I'd rather Balor not get pushed this much either. He's a boring champion. He should be a heel and he should be out of the title scene for now. Stick him in a tag team or something on the main roster for a while.

But I can appreciate the positives that he has going for him, which Reigns does not have. The flash and the intricate entrance, the music. He's a good wrestler I find, if not a little derivative of others around him like Itami.

Aries is better, but older. Nakamura is better, but can't speak English. Joe is about the same as Balor for me. Crews isn't much of a talker yet either. Samson is... I don't know what the hell he is. Corbin would probably be eaten alive by the crowds (in a not very positive way) if he took the title off of Balor just yet without a good build and maybe more development on his part (he's making strides). I guess Balor is all we have.
 
#44 ·
Both have a lot potential, but something is missing. I'd love to like them both, but at the moment I just can't.
 
#20 ·
He's always sucked as a face, Fergal shines as a heel.
 
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#45 ·
OP has a point. Reigns would be far more enjoyable if he wasn't the focus of WWE's sh^tty storylines; he's not very good on the stick but he has a presence and a level of natural charisma/intensity that you don't see everyday. Balor has a very unique look and he was an awesome heel in NJPW but as a face he's kinda stale, and he's not exactly great on the stick ether. At this point I wouldn't call one guy leaps better than the other tbh


As for Finn getting the rocket push -- not sure if i'd call being champion of a glorified developmental show a "rocket push" (Bo Dallas was NXT champ ffs), but I don't doubt that management are high on him. Visually he stands out strong
 
#15 ·
Workrate. And I disagree that Roman Reigns has had better matches than Finn Balor. Balor has had a few classics (Owens in Japan, Joe in London). Roman's match pedigree is pretty dry; I think the only singles match of his that I've ever loved was against Bryan last year at Fast Lane.

Lest anyone forget - Finn Balor has clean losses to Kevin Owens and Hideo Itami prior to his big main event push.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I see/hear about one of them for maybe 30 minutes per week. During a show i enjoy that goes for an hour.

I used to see/hear about the other one in 20 minute long boring as fuck promos followed by listening to people talk about him during matches he isnt even involved in, followed by his actual match, in 5 hours of programming that i couldnt stand per week.

That is another great thing about nxt, you dont have to worry about the john cena's of the WWE hogging the scene for 15 years, people come in, put on some nice matches, then leave, letting someone else deserving take the spotlight.

I think nxt is the only place the 'brass ring' idea is even slightly valid.
 
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#18 · (Edited)
They both struggle to speak, they both have a shitty face character, they both had a rocket strap to them, are loved by the higher ups and are good looking. I just think Reigns has a higher upside for WWE cause he's 6'3 and has no strong accent to overcome :shrug:

Reigns is one heel turn away from being where he needs to be because of the crazy heat he'll get for simply existing. Meanwhile Finn will continue to stay over for the street cred he got before arriving here but may struggle on the main roster if they don't think of anything interesting to add to him besides his entrance.
 
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#32 ·
Well we've seen what Balor can do when he's motivated. He's a talented enough guy who's half assing it in NXT. With Reigns we still havn't seen his best.

That said Balor becoming lazy and not putting much effort into anything is worse than Reigns just being an average talent who is booked badly.
 
#33 ·
Balor is being booked like a champion. People would be up in arms if Finn was losing. Dude gets one or 3 matches a month so booking him strong is important. A loss while you're champion should be treated with depth and importance. It's the hotshot way of earning a the #1 contender slot. I don't think Balor is godawful on the mic, his promos aren't anything to write home about, but at least he's coherent and conveys his message clearly.


Roman does many more matches than Balor and his presence is booked as the bookends of 1 sometimes 2 weekly shows. I don't hate Roman like some do. I hate his booking. He's not an underdog. Stop booking him like one. In addition his booking is totally inconsistent week to week. One week he has a promo about how the title is the most important thing to him. He comes back after the Royal Rumble and suddenly it seems like he couldn't give 2 shits. It's no wonder why he gets cheered in some cities and booed in others.


They're both not bad IMO.. rough in some areas but are growing still. WWE has great talent, their "bad" talent isn't even that bad. It's just that the main roster is so damn inconsistent in booking because there's too many hands in the cookie jar.
 
#36 ·
Prefer Reigns to Balor by far. Balor may be the most boring dude for me in the whole company, right there with Alberto Del Rio.
 
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#60 ·
There's quite a lot of difference inside the ring.

Roman is still green as all hell and works a very limited power style, Balor can work pretty much any style and never looks out of place even against guys that weigh quite a bit more than him.

Outside the ring both feel heavily scripted for me, Balor's promo work is robotic.....that comes from sticking to the script too much. It's very bland material he has to work with too, he's basically an untarnished babyface champion who doesn't change when he goes into "demon" form, there's plenty of good stuff to work with there but it remains untapped. Roman's promo work is frustrating, he flips and flops between comedy and serious all the time, it's what happens when you have 20+ writers working on RAW. It's all about getting the timing right when to be in either mode, right now he's way too happy and cheery after being screwed at the Royal Rumble.....probably because he's been told he's going over at Mania.
 
#62 ·
Roman is still green as all hell and works a very limited power style, Balor can work pretty much any style and never looks out of place even against guys that weigh quite a bit more than him.
Roman isn't "green" at this point, he's just not veteran experienced.

As far as 'styles' go, what does it matter if he or anyone else can or do only work one 'style'? Should that really make them open to criticism? Reigns doesn't do a hurricanrana therefore he's bad? Nah. Praise the ones who can work a multitude of ways like Cesaro, for sure. But you shouldn't be criticising someone for not, when it's not even close to necessary.

With that being said, Balor can only work one way too, and that's the pretentious "I'm not from here" style with the kicks and the emulating of other similar wrestlers, and he does it so boring he's the worst at it. :shrug
 
#64 ·
Finn Bálor gets cheered when he's fucking supposed to get cheered.
 
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#16 ·
People will enjoy being upset with WWE when Balor isn't champ within a year of being signed.
 
#19 · (Edited)
This is a very interesting topic: I will talk about Reigns first, then Bálor and finally My point of view...

Roman Reigns: This is a guy who was a Football player that failed to get in the NFL and was playing on the CFL at the end of his run. A person who started wrestling in 2010 and debuted on the Main Roster in late 2012 as part of a stable, not even debuting as a singles wrestler, so he was protected in that group. He is a guy who has been on his own since mid 2014. Roman Reigns is just 30 years old, and he is a guy who can bring something to the table, even tho his booking is a mess and I currently don't like him, but something good can be done with him. He has problems with selling and storytelling, but sometimes he has showed that he has potential with that. He could be a good wrestler in the future. He showed good things against Lesnar, Cesaro and even Wyatt (and I don't care about their matches, and I especially don't care about Bray anymore, but that's for another thread). On the mic he is dull, and it's something that you can't teach, that's why they need to play to the things that he is good at or at least decent and not awful. He does have some kind of charisma, but is something that needs to be used very carefully, something that current WWE booking is doing badly. I'm not a fan of him, but I can see why some people like him and that's fine. I'm not going to try to people to hate him.

Finn Bálor: This is a guy who is 35 years old and started wrestling in 2000. He got a lot of hype from New Japan Pro Wrestling, where, In my honest opinion, wasn't anything special. Was he good? Yeah, he was good. Was he great? Fuck no, at least to me. He never had good mic skills. Does he had some charisma? I think so, at least on his entrances. But I think the problem with him, that now on NXT shows more, is that...he just seem to damn generic. He is a solid wrestler, but because for being that, he is just...boring. Even with lazy booking he doesn't do anything for me. I tried to give him a chance, but I don't see the appeal with him outside of his entrance, that is getting stale too. Again, if people like him, that's fine...but something needs to be done here, because if they bring him to the Main Roster like this, remember this: It will not go well.

My point of view: Roman Reigns is still "young" and can get better. Finn Bálor had all this hype and nothing happens. Honestly? Even tho Roman Reigns isn't a good wrestler, he is decent for me. Finn Bálor never has had a match that interested me. Not even in NJPW. For example: Ibushi/Devitt from WK8. That match was just a Kota Ibushi highlight, I cared...about him. But the match was dull for me. And I didn't liked Ibushi until after watching other matches from him. That's for another story. My point is: Bálor is not getting younger, now he is injured and sadly, I don't see his chances of getting better. He could? Of course he could. But I think he is not putting on the effort and WWE will not try to change him. And that's another thing that this company is doing wrong with Reigns: They are not trying to do anything different with him. The real problem in this situation is the restrictive product of WWE. If you like Reigns or Bálor, that's fine and all, but even the biggest fans of them could see that they have big flaws that are their fault and WWE's fault. And if you treat them as gods, you are crazy. Even people that area really good or GOATS have flaws.

I just hope both of these guys can progress to be better wrestlers and sports entertainers.

EDIT: @McNugget
What elements do you consider to call Joe/Bálor and Owens/Bálor as Classics? Nothing wrong with you saying that, I'm just curious enough to want to know that. I don't find that those matches are classics and I don't think that Finn has had classic matches (BTW, Reigns neither, except Shield matches, but those doesn't really count)

We can agree to disagree, I just want to know your reasons of calling them classics. And nice sig :)
 
#24 ·
EDIT: @McNugget
What elements do you consider to call Joe/Bálor and Owens/Bálor as Classics? Nothing wrong with you saying that, I'm just curious enough to want to know that. I don't find that those matches are classics and I don't think that Finn has had classic matches (BTW, Reigns neither, except Shield matches, but those doesn't really count)

We can agree to disagree, I just want to know your reasons of calling them classics. And nice sig :)
Well, I will say that I think that a classic match is made by more than just the guys in the match. I love these matches partially because of their settings. That being said, individual takes on each:

Joe vs Finn, London: I loved the pacing of this match. The story being told was a pretty classic wrestling story where both guys know each other well and are constantly countering moves, which makes for really exciting action. I think it was Joe's best match in a long time, and I think that he looked better than he has in years. Balor, meanwhile, impressed me mostly by adjusting his offense enough to look credible against Joe, which is hard for a 190 pound fighter. His strikes were stiff and his offense was just more snug, which looks great. Overall in terms of workrate the match was objectively flawless, and I'd hold it in even higher regard if I had felt going into it that the ending was unpredictable (which it wasn't) - although there were a few times that the match made me question my belief, which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Owens vs Finn, Japan: This was a really interesting match because of both the setting and the framing of the match (Owens having already been called up). It was a bit obvious who was going to win, but thanks to the arena, the crowd, and Michael Cole actually calling the match, it was able to be special. Both guys put out great work. Kevin shined as he always does, and he took advantage of having a smaller opponent by throwing some power moves into his repotoire that he doesn't normally bust out against the bigger main-roster wrestlers. Balor likewise dipped into his NJPW toolbox and dropped both versions of the Bloody Sunday on Owens (a big deal for me, being a huge NJPW fan) as well as the dropkick through the guardrail to the seated Owens, which is a pretty common spot in Japan. The work done in the ring was flawless and both guys looked great.

Mostly I appreciate both for the stories they told and the way they were able to work together. Balor is a pretty perfect example of a worker that mirrors his opponent; if you give him crap he'll likely not do very well, but if you give him an elite talent he'll turn his game up to match.
 
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