WWE Breaking News: Samoa Joe Defeats Finn Balor At Live Event, Becomes New NXT Champion

According to WWE’s official Facebook page, Samoa Joe defeated Finn Balor for the NXT Championship at an NXT live event in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Many believed the Joe was going to defeat Balor back at NXT Takeover: Dallas, and that Balor would debut on the main roster with the Bullet Club (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) after WrestleMania 32. However, that didn’t end up happening.

Gallows and Anderson made their official main roster debut last week, as they attacked Jimmy and Jey Uso. They also attacked WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns following his segment with AJ Styles on this past Monday’s Raw.

WWE has been teasing that Anderson and Gallows were going to team up with AJ Styles, who replaced Finn Balor as the leader of the Bullet Club in 2015. But, so far, Styles hasn’t officially reunited with his former New Japan running-mates, and with Balor finally dropping the NXT Title, it’s beginning to look like the former NXT Champ will be joining forces with Anderson and Gallows at some point in the very near-future.

After Balor retained the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover, rumors began to go around that WWE was holding off on his call-up until after SummerSlam in August. But now, the speculation is that Balor will be debuting at WWE Payback next Sunday night.

In a recent interview with Sirius XM’s Sam Roberts, Balor made it seem like he was going to be staying in NXT for a few more months. Also, in the past, Balor has said that he had no desire to go up to the main roster, because, in his mind, he loved what he was building in NXT, and he felt like going to the main roster would be a step down for him.

“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.”

Everybody knows that Balor is more than ready to be called up to the main roster. Also, he’s in his mid-30s, so it’s really now or never for him if he wants to be a big part of WWE’s main roster.

As for Samoa Joe, well, it looks like he’ll be staying down in NXT for quite a while. It was rumored that the loser of the NXT Takeover: Dallas main-event, which turned out to be Joe, would be heading to the main roster immediately. However, that’s not the case.

Much like Balor, Samoa Joe is more than ready to be on the main roster, and he has been for quite some time now. So, maybe it’ll be him who gets the call-up this coming August.

There will likely be an NXT Championship rematch between Balor and Joe at some point, possibly at the next NXT Takeover show. But, Joe will almost certainly retain in the rematch, as Balor will be a full-time main roster guy.

[Image via WWE]