Part of the fun of any given NXT Takeover is anticipating what kind of over-the-top entrance Finn Bálor will get once he relinquishes control to his demon side. In Dallas this past Friday, not only did he get the Texas Chainsaw Massacre treatment, but he beat Dean Ambrose in a secret coin toss to find out who would get WWE’s only working chainsaw. On Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast, Bálor dropped some behind-the-scenes info about his entrance. As it turns out, he wanted to ride to the ring in style.
“With the Texas [theme], I kind of had this idea that I wanted to come out on a horse, and I can’t ride a horse at all. But of course, on the spur of the moment, I said, ‘Let me ask Google — has anybody ever tried to enter on a horse in a wrestling match?’ And apparently Triple H himself had attempted it at one time, but they couldn’t calm the horse a lot, so he kept bucking at the rehearsal, so they canned the idea.”
Imagine a bodypainted horse. IMAGINE IT.
Bálor is referring to Triple H’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” entrance at WrestleMania XXVII. As the story goes, the plan was for him to ride down the ramp on a Clydesdale, but the horse fell through the stage at rehearsal and nearly had to be euthanized. The idea of a undead barbarian king trying to drag The Undertaker back to hell was already awesome enough, so the added concept of a battle mount probably would have blown my brain across the wall. In any event, the old W.C. Fields quote holds true: “Never work with animals or children, unless the children are Shane McMahon’s sons adorably copying their dad’s signature dance.”
h/t to Wrestling Inc.
