10 New Era Superstars who had to come up the hard way

4. Finn Balor

   

   An effective main roster debut by the Demon King

Balor’s debut had been one of the most anticipated events post the brand split. Immensely charismatic in his personas, Finn Balor has awed all and sundry with his abilities inside the ring, be it NXT or NJPW. Yet WWE’s booking of him seems strange, considering his unintimidating stature and physicality which could only point to the immense following he has amassed over the years.

Born in Ireland, Fergal Devitt made his debut at Hammerlock UK in 2000, where he won the NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship. Having toured for a while, Balor opened his own wrestling promotion in Ireland called NWA Ireland as a sister promotion, where he trained, among others, future WWE Superstar Becky Lynch.

His quick strikes on the ring can be traced to his training in the style of the New Japan Dojo, for which he left the NWA UK in 2006. Besides debuting as Prince Devitt, Balor also adopted the persona of the masked Pegasus Kid, the first of which was won by Chris Benoit. Yet in 2007, he began touring under his Irish identity and had attached himself to the stable Counter Terrorism Unit, having earned the respect of, among its other members, the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger.

Devitt’s brilliance took form as he started winning titles at NJPW, chiefly the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship thrice and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship six times. After a stretch of matches in Mexico, Devitt returned to Japan where he formed the sensational “Bullet Club” stable.

He made his NXT debut in September of 2014, under the ring name Finn Balor. In fact, several of his acts are rooted in Irish symbolism. From his ring name to his move set, each bore a signification of Irish mythology and history. An exhilarating gimmick further facilitated his perfect booking and he grew to become an invaluable asset to WWE NXT, with some claiming him to be the reason for its success.

The icing on the cake came with his NXT Championship win and given his talent and popularity, it would not be unreasonable seeing him become the inaugural WWE Universal Champion.