Finn Balor Blasts Critics Claiming WWE Career Has Been A Failure
Finn Balor has been criticized for not reaching expected levels of highs in WWE.
Finn Balor, who has been a wrestler for roughly 25 years now after starting his career in New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2001, and later gaining prominence there as part of the infamous Bullet Club faction, has seen a lot of success in the wrestling business.
His WWE run began in 2014 with its NXT developmental, where he went on to become NXT Champion.
He won the Universal Championship in 2016 but had to relinquish it immediately following an injury that would keep him out of action for months.
Since then, Finn Balor has not been able to see the main event heights of stardom in WWE, and critics have called his career a ‘failure’.
However, in a recent interview, Balor snapped right back at them, saying that his career has exceeded expectations, and since he is in the World Title picture now with a title match against CM Punk at Elimination Chamber on Feb 28th secured, one can hardly call his career a failure.
Finn Balor Silences His Critics
Finn Balor came back into the World Heavyweight Title mix when his Judgement Day factionmate, Liv Morgan, asked him to stop being lazy and get some gold into the team.
Balor subsequently challenged CM Punk for his title, and although he lost the first attempt at clinching the gold, he has another opportunity this Saturday at Elimination Chamber.
Speaking to New York Post Sports on Friday, Feb 27, Finn Balor said that he is tired of hearing the same thing from critics that had he not gotten injured, his career would’ve looked very different.
I’m tired of hearing people say, ‘What if? What if he hadn’t gotten hurt? What if he didn’t have to relinquish the title? What if he had remained champion?’ Those what-ifs have been asked for 10 years now.
You can learn a lot from a win, but you can learn a lot more from a defeat. It got me thinking – when are you going to fix this? When are you going to clean this stain off your career? When are you going to rectify, in everyone else’s minds, the wrong that happened 10 years ago? A lot of people see it as a tragedy, as a failure. I see it the complete opposite way. I see it as a success.
Balor justified his career by citing early highlights from his time in WWE, which came despite his having no real formal background in wrestling in his hometown in Ireland.
I grew up in a small town in Ireland, in a country with no wrestling schools, no wrestling promotions, barely wrestling on TV. I moved to England to study catch wrestling with the goal of having one match. Sixteen years later, I debut on Raw. I pin Roman on my first night. Three weeks later, I pin Seth at my first pay-per-view. I become champion. That sounds like a success story to me – not a failure.
Finn Balor questioned his critics as to how multiple tag team and intercontinental titles don’t count as successes. He ends his quote by saying that some people won’t be satisfied until he wins the world title.
And I want to address this: people don’t consider winning the United States Championship a success. Being a multiple-time Intercontinental Champion – that’s not a success? Six-time tag team champion – that’s not a success? Going back to NXT and having one of the best runs of your career – that’s somehow not a success? I’ve realized that no matter what I do, no matter how many great matches I have or how many championships I win, some people will never be satisfied unless I win the world title.
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