Why WWE abruptly put an end to Finn Balor's Universal title chase

At Royal Rumble, Finn Balor and Brock Lesnar delivered one hell of a match, which lived up to the story around which it was built. The match, though a bit short, was still very well executed, and was successful in generating excitement in the audience which was already tired by then, due to a long pay-per-view.

At one point in the match, it looked like Finn Balor would slay the Beast to capture the WWE Universal title. Brock Lesnar sold the threat posed by Finn Balor to his Universal title very well, which was evident from the post-match beating he delivered to Balor, expressing his frustration on not being able to dominate the underdog during the match.

In the pro wrestling world, a post-match beating indicates that things are not over between the competitors, and is generally followed by some sort of a match, or at the very least, a confrontation between the two opponents. The next step is generally initiated by the wrestler who was subjected to a beat-down, which in this case was Finn Balor.

The next 'logical' step here was for Finn Balor to deliver a promo the next night on RAW, telling the WWE fans how he exposed the vulnerability of the Beast, which would have been followed by a response from Brock Lesnar.

Another possibility here was for Finn Balor to interfere in the beat-down being delivered by Brock Lesnar on Seth Rollins in the last segment of RAW, saving the Architect from the Beast.

This could have culminated into some sort of a rematch between the two at Elimination Chamber or Fastlane, or a triple threat match also involving the winner of the Royal Rumble, Seth Rollins, at WrestleMania.

The situation between the three for the top title would have kept fans fully invested for months until WrestleMania. And also, given the sporadic nature of Lesnar's appearances on RAW, Finn Balor and Seth Rollins would have carried the programme all by themselves in his absence.

But Alas! WWE did things a lot differently, and possibly in a lot of hurry on RAW. What actually happened was that while Finn Balor was delivering a promo regarding his match with Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble, he was disrupted by the Intercontinental Champion, Bobby Lashley, who claimed to be superior to Brock Lesnar - which by the way sounded ridiculous. He then delivered a beat-down to Balor.

Well, this directly puts Balor in a feud with Bobby Lashley in the Intercontinental title picture, and of course out of the chase for the Universal Championship.

This is a big step backward for Balor, given the fact that just a night ago, he was involved in a grueling match for the Universal Championship with possibly the most dominating athlete in the pro wrestling world, and gave him a run for his money. He basically went from top to the mid-card in just one night. Such abrupt transitions are never welcome.

Though Bobby Lashley is a great athlete, some poor booking decisions by WWE since his return early this year have adversely affected his run by killing all the hype surrounding him.

If the reason behind this programme is to make Lashley look good at the expense of Finn Balor, Finn stands to lose all the momentum he gained in the past few weeks by first pinning Cena clean and then taking Lesnar to the absolute limit.

This will have a negative impact on the credibility of the 'Extraordinary Man', and might even prove detrimental to his career.

On the other hand, if the purpose of this programme is to build up around the momentum Balor has gained, then it will have to come at the expense of Bobby Lashley, who at present needs to hold on to the Intercontinental title for a while to regain his credibility.

Sounds tough!

Lets wait and watch what WWE has planned for these two men.