After the latest WWE brand split last July, the WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown Live, leaving Raw without a major prize. The then-new General Manager Mick Foley announced that red brand would unveil a brand new title, which became the WWE Universal Championship, supposedly named after the WWE Universe.
Balor defeated Seth Rollins and became the first Universal Champion, but he suffered a shoulder injury in the same match, which put him on the shelf for seven months. He didn’t receive – and still hasn’t received – a rematch for the strap that he never lost.
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The title itself was won by Kevin Owens, who kept it until February when Goldberg took it from him in mere seconds. Fast-forward to WrestleMania, and Goldberg was defeated by Brock Lesnar, with whom the title now (very securely) rests. The Beast Incarnate hasn’t defended the championship since, but WWE recently scheduled his first title defence at the absurdly-named Great Balls of Fire on July 9th.
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At the recently concluded Payback PPV, Finn Balor announced on Miz TV that he intended to confront The Beast and retrieve the Universal Championship. All the pieces are now in place.
The first chapter in this story needs to be a psychological one. On the next episode of Raw, Paul Heyman should come out and mock Balor. The former leader of the Bullet Club should respond with confidence, but more importantly, he should focus on his ‘Demon’ persona to try to intimidate Lesnar as much as possible. There is, of course, Extreme Rules before Great Balls of Fire, but Balor doesn’t need to have a match at the event.
Instead, he should come out to the ring in a segment and challenge Lesnar to an Inferno match, which would at least give the pay-per-view’s name some sort of significance. Over the few weeks leading into Great Balls of Fire, Balor should continue to try and intimidate Lesnar with his alter ego and should do so when the actual match arrives as well. During this time, Lesnar mustn’t be fazed, making him look like an even bigger monster than he already does.
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When the match at Great Balls of Fire does arrive, Balor should naturally assume his demonic persona, and the Inferno stipulation should give him the edge; however, he must taste defeat for the first time on the main roster. Preferably, he should lose pretty badly and get destroyed in the process. This should be the turning point of the entire story. Finn Balor needs to hit rock bottom and realise that mind games will not work on Brock Lesnar.
He should demand a rematch at SummerSlam and reevaluate himself, before deciding to focus on his physical preparations. After being out for almost eight months, he should feel the weight of losing the one match that he had come back to win, and that should fuel him further. Brock Lesnar needs to play the role of the more dominant figure in the run-in to their SummerSlam match, but the focus – as it was earlier – needs to be on Balor.
This is important not just for this story, but also for Finn Balor’s long-term career. He has been on the main roster for almost a year but has spent most of it on the sidelines. He needs something to boost him to the status he was supposed to have, and a story in which he sinks to the bottom of the barrel and then claws his way up is something that will definitely make him a force to be reckoned with.
Obviously, Balor needs to win at SummerSlam. He also shouldn’t assume the Demon persona, which may not be popular, but it would add plenty of weight to this match. It should be Finn Balor beating the odds. And only Finn Balor. It should be a long, back-and-forth match, but Balor needs to win. If his work with CM Punk is any evidence, Brock Lesnar can work well with smaller wrestlers, and Balor’s style should blend nicely with Lesnar’s.
The match needs to be one in which Lesnar can once again display his dominance, but more importantly, one in which Balor is almost beaten lifeless but just manages to make it through. The pay-off would undeniably be exquisitely satisfying, with the classic underdog emerging victorious, and all WWE have to do at this point is commit to it.
That should be the end of the feud, as it would be anti-climactic to go forward. Balor can then face a conveyor belt of challengers, and Lesnar can take a few months off and return for the Royal Rumble.
It is almost certain that Finn Balor will meet Brock Lesnar soon enough, and one can only hope that this is how everything plays out. Lesnar would not lose much, as he will always be The Beast Incarnate, but at this point in his career, Balor needs this kind of story. He needs to prove to everyone that he has what it takes to be one of the faces of the WWE. After almost being buried underground, Balor needs to find his way back up and scale the summit of the mountain that rightfully belongs to him.
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