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Watch Finn Balor on His Birthday Dominate ‘Raw’ to Face Rollins for New WWE Universal Championship

By Carter Lee
Published on: 21:36 PST, Jul 25, 2016

Monday night was the premiere episode of Raw, since the WWE brand-split, and on his birthday Finn Balor dominated the evening. On Sunday night at WWE Battleground there was a Triple Threat match between Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose to decide the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Dean Ambrose, who is now exclusively on WWE Smackdown, won that match leaving the Raw brand without a main title.

Ambrose is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion [Photo via WWE]
Stephanie McMahon and commissioner Mick Foley on Monday night declared that the WWE universe demands a heavyweight champion on Raw. Foley would go on to say that the championship will pay tribute the WWE universe so they named the title the WWE Universal Championship.

As Forbes reported, Seth Rollins was declared the number one contender for the new WWE championship that will be decided at SummerSlam, and on Raw there were two Fatal Four-Way matches to decide who he would face. The first match pitted Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Rusev, and Finn Balor against each other; the second match featured Sheamus, Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, and Roman Reigns. The winners of the two matches faced each other in the main event of Raw to decide who would face Rollins at SummerSlam.

The first Fatal Four-Way featured Finn Balor and it was nothing short of extraordinary. Kevin Owens and Balor started the match off in the middle of the ring while Cesaro and Rusev fought outside of the ring. Finn and Owens have a rich history that dates back to NXT when Balor defeated his longtime rival to become the NXT Champion. Finn took a lot of the heat in the contest, receiving a beatdown by Owens and Rusev. Balor was also the recipient of a pop-up powerbomb and a frog splash from Owens during the match. The contest concluded when Finn Balor hit his finisher, the Coup de Grâce, to earn him a spot in the Raw main event.

The next Four-Way match was also entertaining and mainly focused on Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns. Reigns has been in the doghouse as of late, because he failed a drug test violating the WWE’s wellness policy, but he went over in the contest by pinning Jericho after he hit him with a spear. The Raw main event was decided; Roman Reigns would go against Finn Balor to see who will face Seth Rollins at SummerSlam.

The crowd erupted during the main event of Raw when Balor came down to the ring and the booming cheers from the audience could be heard throughout the arena. Once again, Balor took most of the heat with Reigns using his size to toss him around like a ragdoll. The end of the main event featured several near pinfalls with both Roman and Balor barely kicking out. Reigns and Balor had a decent match on Raw considering they haven’t worked a lot together in the ring, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly impressive. What was impressive was that Balor went over clean in the match, pinning Reigns for the three-count, after hitting a second Coup de Grâce of the evening. Perhaps anticipating that Finn would lose this match, the Raw live audience went crazy when Balor won.

So the Raw main event is set for WWE SummerSlam and it will feature Seth Rollins taking on Finn Balor. SummerSlam will be held on August 21, so there is almost a month for the WWE to build up this match. There is always a possibility that the WWE universe will see Finn Balor’s alter-ego, Demon-Balor, take on Rollins in August. He is known for bringing out that character in heated rivalries and in matches where a lot is at stake. Regardless, the WWE universe can be excited for the new era of Raw as they anticipate Finn Balor heading to SummerSlam to take on Seth Rollins for the new WWE Universal Championship.

[Photo via WWE]

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