Major WWE Star Wanted To “Reheat” Their Character In NJPW
Before joining WWE in 2014, Finn Balor was best known as Prince Devitt in New Japan Pro Wrestling and despite being part of Vince McMahon’s company ever since, Balor still had eyes on a return to the far east.
Balor’s place in wrestling history is assured as he was one of the founding members – alongside Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, and Karl Anderson – of Bullet Club. A decade later the group is still making waves in the wrestling business with David Finlay leading the NJPW group while Jay White and Juice Robinson purport to be Bullet Club Gold in AEW.
Finn Balor found great success on the NXT brand before moving to WWE’s main roster in 2016 where he soon became the inaugural Universal Champion. Disaster struck during his match with Seth Rollins for that gold at SummerSlam leaving Balor injured and having to vacate the title less than 24 hours after winning it.
In 2019 Balor returned to NXT to win the NXT Championship again this time as a villain but it seems that the Irish star had other ideas about refreshing himself in WWE.
Rocky Romero – who has long helped book foreign talent for NJPW – recently explained to Comedy Store Wrestling that Balor has considered a return to Japan to help his WWE career:
“I’ve had a couple fun conversations with him (Finn Bálor) over the last couple of years of like, him kind of fantasy booking and you know, ‘I’m gonna talk to Triple H and see if there’s an opportunity here for me to come back.’ This was years ago. But yeah, just to come back and do a couple matches and just kind of reheat himself up before going back to WWE.”
So far, Balor remains firmly part of WWE and following the 2023 draft will remain a part of Monday Night Raw alongside the rest of The Judgment Day including SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley.