During a recent interview with BT Sport, WWE Superstar Finn Balor commented on pitching a run on the NXT UK brand prior to returning to SmackDown, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On pitching a run in NXT UK before he was moved to SmackDown: “It’s incredibly. Obviously, the surprise appearance at NXT UK about two years ago was something that I was really excited about. It wasn’t going to be a one-off. It was going to be more of a regular thing. We were building towards a match with WALTER that got taken away from us by the pandemic. It’s something I’m still super invested in. And then, believe it or not, before I return to SmackDown, I could feel the run at NXT kind of coming to an end, and I’d kind of exhausted all the resources there against all the guys I could wrestling against. And I actually pitched the idea of moving to NXT UK, and obviously that might’ve been a little bit of a bold move and maybe a bold pitch, but I felt like, you know, not only like challenge myself against guys like Ilja [Dragunov], WALTER, A-Kid, Jordan Devlin, but you know, help the brand the same way I, you know, tried to help NXT in the last couple of years. So, I felt like it was a win-win for all of us, but the office had a different opinion on that. They wanted me on SmackDown.”
On seeing the NXT UK brand grow: “Seeing that brand grow, it’s incredible. Some of those guys are some of the best in the world on that, and like you said, it’s a more — I don’t want to use the word ‘pure,’ but it’s a more, definitely a raw or mat-wrestling based on that. Some of these guys are really talented that have a huge team in front of tthem. So, it’s great to see the ground grow, the seed of breath and grow. And you know, hopefully we’ll get the funds back in the UK soon too, and no offense to BT studios, but if we fill that up with people or get us back in places like Blackpool, or Wembley, you know, it would be incredible.”
"Before I returned to SmackDown, I could feel the run at NXT coming to an end, I pitched the idea of moving to #NXTUK."
"I feel like I could challenge myself, but also help the brand like I helped NXT."
Maybe one day, @FinnBalor 🤞
He has unfinished business over here… pic.twitter.com/85dGelYvAL
— WWE on BT Sport (@btsportwwe) September 2, 2021