It’s a good Monday to be Finn Bálor. He brought back the Demon at SummerSlam with a tweaked look and the kind of hard-hitting dominance it should have had all along, and got a quick and decisive win over Raw Constable Baron Corbin.
The day before the show, Finn gave a video interview to James Delow, host of the Gorilla Position podcast. Bálor and Delow obviously go way back, and they have a nice friendly conversation about the show to come, in which Finn puts over Baron Corbin as a worthy opponent, and a number of other wrestling topics.
In particular, Finn Bálor has nothing but praise of then-Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, then man who spent 504 days with the red belt that Finn only got to keep for one. Bálor described the excitement Lesnar brings to the ring and said he’d “love” to get in the ring with him.
“Once he walks out, man, it’s just a totally different vibe, right? Everyone’s like, “Oh no, what’s gonna happen? We don’t know what’s gonna happen. And I love it, I love watching Brock. I’d love to get in the ring with Brock.
He is an attraction, and he’s been an attraction from day one. How long’s he been in the company? Like probably fifteen years, more maybe, right? People kind of forget that, they’re like “Oh, he comes and goes,” and they talk all this crap, but Brock’s the real deal. He was New Japan champion, you know? People forget that, you know he’s been doing it here for years, NCAA — he’s the real deal, man. And UFC, duh, how did I forget that one?
When Brock walks to the ring there’s something special happening that night. Regardless of if it’s good or bad, people like it or don’t like it, they’re all paying attention. And that’s what we need. We need more of that in pro wrestling.
Delow follows up by asking if Finn thinks Lesnar is sticking around WWE after SummerSlam and, while Finn claims no inside info, he certainly does have opinions.
“I hope so. I hope so. You never know. You know everyone said he’s out the door after WrestleMania, everyone said last SummerSlam he was going. This SummerSlam he’s going. People just make up stories in their head because it sells newspapers or clickbait or whatever crap. They just like to talk to hear themselves talk or make themselves feel like they have an opinion, but we’re all just guessing. Because it’s all media hype. Nobody knows until it actually happens. I don’t think they even know.”
James does gently call him out for claiming that wrestling (or anything, for that matter) “sells newspapers” these days, but it’s all in good fun. Bálor goes on to say that his all time favorite SummerSlam was 1995, mostly for the Shawn Michaels/Razor Ramon match, but also 1-2-3 Kid facing Hakushi. When Delow points out that he picked a show that featured Diesel and Mabel in the main event, Finn is unapologetic, adding, “I loved Mabel! I love the big guys.”
