Finn Balor Was Burned Out By Backstage Politics Before WWE NXT Run

Finn Balor is a former 2-time NXT Champion and has competed in high profile matches since his return to NXT back in 2019. Before that, Balor was working in the main roster for a few years, where he was not utilized well. It seems Finn Balor was burned out by backstage politics as well.

Finn Balor was called up to Friday Night Smackdown last year after his second run in NXT was over. He would go on to feud with Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship and failed to beat the Tribal Chief on both occasions.

Finn Balor was then drafted to Monday Night RAW as part of last year’s WWE Draft. He even sent a message to AJ Styles and Seth Rollins after being drafted. He had a few matches on the show including with Austin Theory.

While speaking on Mark Andrews: My Love Letter to Wrestling, Finn Balor talked about backstage politics in WWE and how it negatively affected him. Balor revealed that politics burned him out before he made his way back to NXT.

“I feel like I had got a bit stale and I was kind of like, I was just tired, I was exhausted. I was kind of just worn out of dealing with the politics in the office and the writers and everything that goes with it. I just like, had enough. When I returned to NXT, I really feel like that rejuvenated me in the ring.

One thing I feel that helped and you know all the negative effects of the pandemic, taking the fans out of the equation in wrestling makes you kind of change the cadence and the tempo of the match. Because you’re not trying to perform for a large audience, you’re literally performing in a one-on-one environment, and you can really work more on the details of the match. You’re not so reliant on hearing that audible response from the crowd.

You know, so I would produce a match to get a ‘yay’ or a ‘boo’ or a ‘oh, holy s**t.’ When you take that element out of it you can get back to the nuts and bolts of what I actually learned in Hammerlock, and what I learned in Japan, and just gritty wrestling. I really feel that despite all the negative things that the pandemic brought us, it brought me that one positive thing that I can get back to wrestling for me and the way I like to wrestle. It’s now kind of finding that balance of how can I keep that art form of the way I like to wrestle in front of big crowds when you’re on a limited time frame with TV wrestling? So it’s trying to find that balance is going to be the most difficult thing.”

Regarding Finn Balor’s status, Vince McMahon has given up on his push. Finn Balor’s current booking will certainly disappoint fans who simply wanted to see him win the WWE Championship on Monday Night RAW. He is currently out of the country but is expected to make it back long before WrestleMania 38.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes