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Could Balor's injury be a good thing in the long run?

2K views 30 replies 21 participants last post by  TD Stinger 
#1 ·
Let me just set the record straight here and point out that I don't wish injuries onto any wrestler, no matter what the circumstances are...unless they are Nikki Bella.

So with that said, I've been thinking a lot about Finn Balor's injury and how bad of timing it is for WWE right now with them lacking in actual main eventers on Raw, but then I thought of something. Maybe this is for the best.

Allow me to explain. I stated before when we found out Finn Balor would be competing for the title at Summerslam that this was a bad call on WWE's part, that he needed time to develop and give fans a reason to care about him by giving them a chance to truly get to know him. Because of them going this route, I said fans wouldn't give much of a shit about his actual match with Rollins because there's nothing to build on. Well, I was 100% right. There was literally nothing for them to build on and when the actual match happened, people cared more about how shitty the new belt was than the actual match. But that's where things start to turn around. See, Balor has won the title. He's now on top of the Raw brand. It's a happy good-feel story. And then he's injured. And on Raw he has to give up the title. You could see the legitimate sadness in his eyes. It was depressing as fuck to watch. At that moment, I found myself caring a lot more about him than I did at any point during the build up to his match. I cared even more when I saw Seth bragging in the ring about how he's the rightful champion while Balor looked on from the ramp. After I watched it over again today, it occurred to me that I was actually invested in what was happening. There was an actual story behind this.

Now we're without Balor for six months. We've seen some of what he can do (in disappointing fashion but that's irrelevant) and you can bet that there's now fans out there who wish they could see more of what he could do now that he's gone. You see, the whole "don't know what you got until it's gone" theory most definitely applies to pro wrestling, especially WWE. Even with a guy you aren't exactly the biggest fan of, odds are you'll still miss his presence on a show when he's gone for a while after he was a big part of it. So now, WWE has something BIG to build on. You want more main eventers for Raw? This is a great way to make one.

Lets say six months later Rollins has regained the gold and he's on top of the Raw brand. And then out of no where during a promo where he's bragging about his win or some shit, Balor returns. WWE doesn't build it up but instead it's a sudden thing that happens out of no where. And WWE treats it like it's a huge fucking deal after the fact. Now they've got something to go off of here. They've got a redemption storyline, showcasing Balor's determination to get himself back in the ring and back on top. Now people actually have something to care about, and you can truly get behind Balor. You can actually tell a story with their match.

This is what we could get instead of what we could have originally gotten, which was Balor holding onto the title for what ever amount of time WWE gives him with still having little to no build up, no character and no reason for anyone to give a shit. Now with this, with him getting injured, we have a chance to actually see WWE showcase him in a matter that makes you want to root for the guy, that makes you want to see him win in the end. We get to see an actual struggle, and an actual strive from him to truly make it to the top of the brand. Or, maybe he doesn't and he loses his return match for the title. Either way, we are given a reason to care more for him than we ever did before, and that in of itself is better than anything we got in the piss poor three week build up to his first main roster world title win.
 
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#5 ·
I was actually intrigued to see where they'd go with it - they must have had some sort of plan in place with Balor coming to the main roster like that, beating Reigns clean on his first night and then going over Rollins clean in his first PPV appearance. That just doesn't happen. I thought they really may have gone with the heel route and have The Club help him win but they stuck with him being the face and had him go over Rollins clean which is a way to build a new main event star.

I think one good thing to potentially come out of it is the fact that we may go and get Kevin Owens win the belt on Raw - something that would be fresh and exciting. A top heel champion who is great in the ring and one of the best mic workers in the industry and someone who hasn't been shoved down our throats so to speak, who is massively over and could potentially have a great feud lined up with Jericho for the title, which not only would be great and fresh in the main event scene, it's also a good way of getting Owens over by putting him over a legend like Jericho.
 
#6 ·
You make a good point. WWE have stumbled into a better storyline than they could have written themselves by luck. They messed up putting Balor on a pedestal so soon but when he returns he will have hopefully have crowd sympathy rather than just being a superman babyface people are bound to reject.
 
#10 ·
I don't wish injury on anyone and it really sucks timing wise. But Finn's injury could benefit KO tremendously. He was in line to feud with Balor for the title anyways. They didn't have plans to put the title on Rollins at the moment. So if they want to stick to their original plan somewhat, I think Owens winning on Monday is the way to go. I've been hoping for an Owens/Rollins feud for sometime now. So have them have a decent feud, but keep the title on KO. Rollins doesn't need it right now.
 
#11 ·
I wish Balor all the best during his recovery time and I can only imagine the emotions he is feeling right but I’m sorry mate, if you had had a run with this title the title would have been unsalvageable. There, I said it. The title has a shoddy design, a stupid name, “universal” (heh) rejection from fans and the last thing it bloody needed was someone being hotshotted right into it. By the end of SummerSlam, The Universal Title already had zero prestige despite the fact that it was meant to be the top prize in the company. And if they had allowed Balor to hold onto it and given him a run like he got on NXT, Raw would have been dead in the water. If the much more smarky crowd of NXT eventually turned on Balor, he wouldn’t have stood a bloody chance against your weekly Raw crowd.

So he relinquishes the title and all these stars come out hungry for that belt, not just the faces of the company but guys the fans really love. Then these guys go on and put on high quality, high intensity, matches all to be the one to have the first proper reign for the Universal Championship. The desire shown by these stars has made this belt feel important for the first time since the belt was introduced. In just twenty four hours they turned around one of the biggest “sighs” of SummerSlam into one of the most exciting parts of WWE in ages.

Needless, fake, injuries aside this whole Universal Title situation did absolutely fantastic things in the name of strengthening the roster, too. Neville and Zayn put in a solid performance at SummerSlam but they were on the preshow, now they’re here as part of the big picture. Sure, they lost, but they both came out of those matches (even with the losses) looking better than they ever really have. There is so much potential momentum behind them now to maybe have them chase the US Title and cement themselves as solid upper mid carders. Plus guys like Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns, guys who deserve to always be near the top of the ladder, who have looked lost lately, are finally back to where they belong again.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I did NOT want this injury, especially not this early.

I will say, however, I was extremely disappointed by the leaked plans of having Balor vs. Owens and then having it lead to Balor vs. Owens vs. Jericho. Those could be good matches, but I was worried that they were never going to pull the trigger on the Balor Club and then we'd be back to his NXT title reign qualms. I was expecting The Balor Club to have to force people like Reigns and Rollins or even Zayn and Owens to team up and take it down. If those were the plans, though, then it's shortsighted because you're going to put Balor, who already had criticisms of his NXT title reign, into a feud with KEVIN OWENS, someone who people want to be champion badly? Don't even mention if Sami Zayn got involved, you would be setting up Balor to get some inclining rejection...

...unless you want that and use it into a slow burn into a heel turn.

Even then? That would have been bad television to work with for all that time and regardless, the sole face of your title picture should be putting on good TV (and even Cena/Roman can do that by playing into exploited crowd reactions) and should be booked in good TV until they turn heel.

At the very least, he will get sympathy reactions on return, because that heartfelt speech on Raw did do some tearjerking and that's how they'll last remember him.

Still, while it was fresh, it's a shame to see it not even play out. It doesn't feel good to have a title get vacated on its FIRST DAY.
 
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#26 ·
In the short term, it'll suck.

In the long term, I do believe that it could be something of a blessing in disguise. With some hit-and-run booking, they've established a new main event player and then immediately gotten him back out of the title picture, meaning he won't have a stale run as champion or look weak from losing it. He'll be the uncrowned champion when he returns, giving him a chance to chase or do whatever character-wise while getting all the benefits from Rusev, Reigns and Rollins having put him over already.
 
#3 · (Edited)
No. Now we're back to Roman vs. Rollins AGAIN. I'm sick as sick can be of the Shield, even if Rollins is a great wrestler. They've been clogging the main event scene for 2 years straight. It's extremely tired and played out.

I don't like Balor but at least he isn't the bloody Shield. I have no illusions that WWE will use this to build up more main eventers. They'll just give us half a year of Roman vs. Seth.
 
#24 ·
If you're on the same show as Roman, injuries are always a blessing. Anything that saves you from having to job to Roman is career-saver. Look at the difference it made for Rollins, getting hurt at the right time. He'd be an absolute nobody geek right now if he was fed to Roman when they wanted to. Instead, he got hurt and returned with all of that momentum.
 
#31 ·
I don’t really see it that way.

For Balor, he’s losing a lot of money by not being able to work.

For Raw and WWE, their losing one of their new top stars, on a 3 hour show no less, and forces them to completely rewrite their plans going forward. And again, it’s a 3 hour show. And to lose your new top star of the brand is such a blow.
 
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