If you’re an NXT fan, or a WWE fan in general probably, the past like … I dunno, six months? … have been all about “When is Finn Bálor finally going to make his main roster debut?” It’s like waiting for Poochie to show up at the fireworks factory, but more. There have been rumors and rumblings and Tumblrs and tumblings and last week, the inevitable became immediate when Bálor was selected as the No. 5 overall pick in the WWE Draft.
On Monday night’s episode of Raw, Bálor finally, finally, finally showed his impossibly well-defined abs in his WWE main roster debut. The show opened with Stephanie McMahon and Raw GM Mick Foley inviting the whole Raw roster to the stage, but Bálor was not immediately visible.
Foley and McMahon then announced that Raw would have two fatal four-way matches to begin determining a new WWE Universal Champion, and Bálor was the eighth and final entrant announced, joining Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Sheamus, Rusev, Roman Reigns, Cesaro and Chris Jericho. Bálor’s name was met with a huge ovation.
Bálor’s fatal four-way match ended up being the first match on Raw, where he got a very lengthy entrance and a massive pop, then managed to defeat Kevin Owens, Cesaro and Rusev by pinning Rusev after a Coup de Grace.
For those of you unfamiliar, Bálor is the longest-reigning NXT Champion of all time, winning the title from Kevin Owens at last year’s July 4 Beast in the East special and holding the belt for 292 days before dropping it to current champ Samoa Joe at an NXT house show in April. Before that, the Irish megastar set the world on fire in Japan as Prince Devitt and was one of the founding members of the Bullet Club, which is the nWo of the current generation of wrestling fans.
