Finn Balor Reveals Why He Ditched Signature WWE Entrance For WrestleMania
Finn Balor has explained why he gave up having his signature entrance to send an even stronger message at his first WrestleMania as a WWE star.
At WrestleMania 34, Finn Balor competed in the first WrestleMania match of his career as he challenged for the Intercontinental Championship in a Triple Threat match that also included The Miz and Seth Rollins.
Many expected Balor to don his ‘Demon’ persona for the grandest stage of them all but Finn Balor is for everyone and he had bigger plans in mind.
Finn Balor Ditched The Demon For First WrestleMania
Speaking to TNT Sports, Finn Balor explained how despite pressure to do ‘The Demon’ at WrestleMania he pitched an idea to Stephanie McMahon and Triple H that saw him enter alongside members of New Orleans’ LGBTQ+ community:
I remember in the build-up to ‘Mania, I’d been asked it a lot. ‘Are you gonna do ‘The Demon’? Are we gonna do ‘The Demon’? How are we gonna do this?’ I remember having this idea to do this, and a lot of people were kind of, ‘Oh, you gotta definitely do The Demon, it’s WrestleMania. It’s your first WrestleMania. You gotta do that entrance.’
I remember thinking, ‘I think I got something that’s cooler, that’s more important, to use the platform as a voice for change.’
It was about three weeks before ‘Mania, and I brought it to Hunter [Triple H] and Stephanie [McMahon], and they jumped on it straight away and said, ‘100%, you can do that.’ They helped me get in touch with the LGBT+ community in New Orleans, and they were actually members of the community from there. They weren’t extras or anything like that. It was legit having them up on stage.
For me, that was a more important moment than any Demon entrance could have ever been.
"That was a more important moment than any 'Demon' entrance could have ever been."
🏳️🌈 Flanked by members of the New Orleans LGBQT+ community, @FinnBalor discusses his iconic entrance at WrestleMania 34.#WhatWentDownpic.twitter.com/RLcqRg23qx
— WWE on TNT Sports (@wweontnt) January 17, 2023
Finn Balor lost in his WrestleMania debut but one year later, The Demon did grace the ring at WrestleMania 35 as Balor captured the Intercontinental Title from Bobby Lashley. Incredibly Balor had a four-year layoff from WrestleMania and when he returned to the card for the event in 2023, he portrayed The Demon once again in a loss to Edge in a Hell In A Cell match.