WWE News: NXT Champion Finn Balor Says Being Called Up To The Main Roster Would Be ‘Detrimental To My Career’
There’s probably no one down in NXT who is more ready to be on WWE’s main roster than the current champion of the brand, Finn Balor. At the age of 34, Balor has been in the wrestling business for more than a decade, and he was a top guy in Japan for several years before signing on the dotted line with World Wrestling Entertainment. Balor’s years of experience in the business and his high level of talent has many WWE fans wondering why he hasn’t been called up to the main roster, especially during a time when WWE has been absolutely devastated by injuries to some of their top guys.
During a conference call while promoting the NXT Takeover: London show that is taking place on Wednesday, WWE’s chief operating officer, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, went into detail on why Finn Balor hasn’t been called up to the main roster, saying that he would hate to call Balor up during a time like this because they would just be using him as a “band-aid” to cover up the holes in their main roster. When guys like Randy Orton and Seth Rollins return from injury, Balor could very well get lost in the shuffle.
When Balor left New Japan Pro Wrestling and signed with WWE, one of the caveats was that he wouldn’t be down in NXT for very long. It’s now been a year since Balor made his NXT debut, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to be heading to the main roster anytime soon, which is something that the NXT Champion is now more than okay with.
Last week, Finn Balor was the guest on Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast, where he was asked about being called up to the main roster, which Balor responded to by saying that if he were called up to the main roster in the near future, he feels like it would be detrimental to his career. He loves being in NXT, and he loves being one of the guys who is building the brand.
“I really believe that what we’re doing here in the WWE Performance Center and what we’re doing with NXT is something that’s going to be remembered for years. I feel like to get quote, unquote called up to the main roster would be, maybe, like a step back for my career right now. Obviously, instant gratification, you get called up to the main roster, that’s great, but I think what we’re doing here in NXT will stand longer in history as kind of like a revolutionary period and to kind of pull myself out of that would be detrimental to my career in the long term.”
Balor being left down in NXT probably will be best for his WWE career in the long term since many guys who are called up to the main roster aren’t used well. Tyler Breeze, who was called up recently and seemingly for no reason at all, is a great example of that. Breeze was one of NXT’s top guys, but on the WWE main roster, he’s just another mid-carder.
While NXT is still WWE’s developmental brand, at the same time, it’s more than that. Triple H, who is the Vince McMahon of NXT, wants to make it similar to a promotion like Ring of Honor, where all the best independent wrestlers from all over the world wrestle under one banner, which is why guys like Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and many other top independent names have been brought in since the brand caught fire.
[Image via WWE]
