While Finn Balor is one of the most entertaining superstars in all of WWE and proves it amazing match after amazing match, the company has seemingly refused to give him any sort of storyline direction. In fact, Balor has been stuck in the mid card for quite some time now and his current feud with Drew McIntyre doesn’t seem like its going to go his way.
Beyond that, Balor has been booked so poorly that its almost impossible to see him as a legitimate threat in The Universal title scene ever again. Furthermore, when he does end up winning, its in the most screwy fashion imaginable, which illegitimates him no matter what he accomplishes
With that being said and things seemingly getting worse and worse as time goes on, it’s becoming obvious that this is a ploy to slowly get fans to give up on Balor as a main event threat. In the end, here are six key things WWE is doing in order to make sure fans give up on Balor as a main event star.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he won’t be a crucial part of WWE for years to come and maybe even an underdog champion, but he will never be the guy. Not only is that evident by how sparsely he has been involved in the title scene since coming back from his shoulder injury, but also by what WWE has done with him since the injury.
#6 Keeping him off of pay per views
Believe it or not, Finn Balor has not been on a pay per view since Summerslam. Keep in mind that includes Crown Jewel, Super Showdown and Hell in a Cell. Unfortunately for Balor, this disheartening fact about Balor comes after losing Universal title rematch against Roman Reigns, which put him on a downward spiral.
With that in mind, one of the key ways WWE is getting fans to give up on Balor is to not even feature him when it comes to pay per views. If nothing else, this allows WWE to keep halting Balor’s momentum whenever he picks up a key win on Raw, and also gives the company more time to focus on the stars they want in the main event scene.
#5 Not using Demon Balor
Where the hell is Demon Mode?
Finn Balor appeared at Summerslam as The Demon King for the first time in almost a year, but WWE hasn’t bothered to have him use it since then! Of course, Balor claims The Demon king only comes out when feels its necessary, which seems to be a clever way to deflect from the fact that WWE doesn’t want him to do it.
Think about it! If WWE wanted to push Balor at any capacity, wouldn’t they have gone back to Demon mode by now? Instead, WWE seems to be keeping Demon mode on the shelf for the foreseeable future, which is going to make it difficult for Balor to have any kind of momentum moving forward.
In the end, maybe WWE will pull a 360 and have Balor return as The Demon King to fight Drew McIntyre, but one has to imagine that it would just be a ploy to eventually put The Scottish Psychopath over as the better man. Furthermore, the momentum Balor would lose if he took a loss as The Demon king would surely hurt him for quite a while.
#4 Having him lose when it counts
Let’s face it.
Every time Finn Balor needs to walk out with a win, WWE does one of two things. They either give him a victory in the flukiest way possible or even worse, outright lose. Not only are both of things working to legitimize Balor as a main event title threat, it also relegating him to the role of being nothing more than someone to gain momentum off of.
For example, Finn Balor lost to Roman Reigns the night after Summerslam in a Universal title match and while that was pretty much expected to happen, WWE then went ahead and handed him a lose against Baron Corbin a few weeks later. Of course, WWE has given Balor a few no contest’s to help give him some momentum, but seemingly only to keep the feud going.
In the end, Balor losing when it counts and only gaining momentum from disqualification rulings or roll-ups is slowly chipping away at his character. Its also making it less and less likely that Balor will be involved in the main event title scene anytime soon, which seems to be WWE’s plan.
#3 Roll up victories
Let’s talk about these fluke wins for a second.
While they do give Balor a little bit of momentum moving forward and help keep a feud going, they eventually end with Balor getting his ass handed to him. In fact, the roll-up victories have to be one of the worst part of Balor’s booking right now and only makes him look extremely weak.
Think about it! Finn Balor has one of the best move set’s in WWE right now and the company is going to have his matches end with a roll up? Not a Balor Stomp or a cannonball or a slingblade or some kind of devastating kick? The only option is literally grabbing the opponent from behind and levering your weight against them for a three count?
Again, Balor has one of the best move sets in WWE and this is the kind of finish he keeps getting for his matches? If nothing else, this should stand as proof that WWE is doing this intentionally to Balor and although it very well could work to build him as a midcard underdog, he would still be considered chump change when it comes to The Universal title picture.
#2 Screwy booking
Another way WWE is trying to illegitimate Balor is how they keep booking him during matches Sure, Balor has won a few contests by a surprise roll up recently , but he still stands 5-5 in his last ten matches on Raw. Beyond that, two of those wins were roll-ups and the other three were against less than stellar opponents.
Even worse is the fact that at least one of those wins was a disqualification finish, which is something WWE has been doing more and more with Balor as times goes on. With that being said, this ultimately shows that WWE isn’t willing to book him favorably and will have him lose or narrowly win against quality opponents every time.
In the end, not only is WWE’s 50/50 booking of Balor going ot quickly erode his fan base, is also going to give him no legitimate claim to ever climb into the title picture again. If nothing else, the longer WWE does this with Balor, the harder its eventually going to be to build him back up if that is even possible at this point.
#1 No storyline direction
Finn Balor hasn’t done much storyline wise since his feud with Baron Corbin and while they might just really have nothing of significance for him, it almost seems intentionally done at this point. In fact, with the amount of feuds or divisions that Balor would do great in, he always gets relegated to lower mid card work or putting over superstars over.
Of course, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing if WWE filled in the rest of Balor’s time with something of meaning, but they continuously fail to do so. Furthermore, they frequently jump him around from storyline to storyline, which doesn’t really make for cohesive storytelling or help him gain any sense of footing anywhere.
Beyond that, it keeps fans dissatisfied by the fact that they aren’t even willing to consider him as a title competitor, which is becoming a huge reason why fans are giving up on him. Think about it! WWE could have put him in feuds for The IC, The Tag team titles or even put him in a match against Brock Lesnar if they wanted to, but have not done so
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