Grade The Reign: Finn Balor As NXT Champion

[Jack-Hammer]

In what turns out to be the first championship match in NXT history to result in a title change at a house show, Samoa Joe defeated Finn Balor at an NXT event last night in Lowell, Massachusetts to become the new NXT Champion. This was also the first WWE sanctioned championship to change hands at a house show since Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch won the WWE World Tag Team Championship for the 3rd and final time on September 8, 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa. With wrestling television shows, ppvs and specials so frequent these days, it's a rarity to see a title from a huge company like WWE change hands at a house show.

Balor's reign ended suddenly which, no doubt, is going to fuel rumors and speculation that he's very soon to be headed to the main roster. Nonetheless, Balor's run as NXT Champion lasted 292 days, the longest in the title's brief but prestigious history, so how would you grade Balor's run as NXT Champion?

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

The word that comes to mind is fine. Balor was booked solidly as the top face and adored by the crowd. He put on solid matches. But I dunno... I don't want to say his reign was boring, but nothing really jumps out to me as memorable. I can't really recall any great promos or segments involving his reign, and whilst match wise he always delivered I do think he lacks a certain something in the ring.

On further thinking, I enjoyed the detour with the Dusty tournament and the dynamic with Joe. And Balor's entrances...

 

[TheBadGuy92]

The word that comes to mind is fine. Balor was booked solidly as the top face and adored by the crowd. He put on solid matches. But I dunno... I don't want to say his reign was boring, but nothing really jumps out to me as memorable. I can't really recall any great promos or segments involving his reign, and whilst match wise he always delivered I do think he lacks a certain something in the ring.

On further thinking, I enjoyed the detour with the Dusty tournament and the dynamic with Joe. And Balor's entrances...

Basically this^^

The only thing memorable from his reign were his entrances. Not too much else.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

Agree with the above. His initial win over Owens in Japan was cool, other than that mostly uneventful.

Entrances were good, but even that after a while started to feel like same ol' same ol' because WWE is intent on sticking with the demon for marketing purposes, so he doesn't really get to mix it up like he did pre-WWE.

 

[Azane]

The Demon made his defenses seem so much more special, the opponents he was able to run through were good to great.

Beating KO for it was special, and added a lot
the way he lost it at a house show to a faken injury drags it down for me a little.

I was really entertained, and never felt like I wanted it to end early, so it never got too stale to me.

I'm calling it a great Solid A run, not perfect for a couple small reasons here or there.

I guess I'm just really a sucker for any face reign that doesn't have the crowd booing anymore.

 

[Harthan]

I think it's hard to argue that Finn's reign was anything short of excellent. I know some people have criticized the overall quality of his in ring work, and indeed, Finn may never have broken out an all time classic, but he did produce a number of excellent matches pretty much every time he defended his title - and when he won it versus Owens - and produced a meaningful feud for pretty much every Takeover he was a part of. He also carried a huge load as the recurring main eventer of live event after live event for NXT, which was massive considering their huge expansion of touring in 2015 and early 2016. I don't know many people who came away from a live NXT event and said "Finn's match sucked". He felt constantly like a guy who truly loved NXT and what he was doing there and it showed time and time again in promos and in matches and he really carried the brand on his shoulders from the time of Zayn's injury and Owens' departure. I think it's also significant that the two biggest NXT shows ever were main evented by Finn and he delivered an excellent ladder match with Owens and a very good match with Joe. That said, one criticism that can be sent Finn's way is his character, outside of the Demon, which is excellent, was a bit underwhelming, but considering he was working against very strong heels in Owens and Joe for most of his reign, being the more passive face isn't the worst thing as long as he held the crowd's support, which he constantly did. Another criticism is that while Finn had the main event of NXT's two biggest shows ever, he came away overshadowed both nights by first Banks vs Bayley and then Nakamura vs Zayn.

Still, I think this will go down as a well booked, thoroughly entertaining title reign where Finn became the face of NXT. Perhaps with somewhat better character work and slightly better match production I would call it A+, but it's a comfortable A in my opinion.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It's been good but forgettable. Solid but unspectacular. It was a Ziggler/Jericho reign. One of those ones where there's a couple of stellar matches but then you realise they've stood out against superworkers like Shawn Michaels and Rey Mysterio on PPV, but their bread and butter matches on Raw and Smackdown are largely uninspiring.

 

[ShinChan]

I gave it A .

Because it couldn't be better. We all know that Finn is decent or atmost good at in-ring work. So we shouldn't expect Cesaro-esque matches from him. Still he had excellent matches with the likes of Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens. Heck I even remember that he put on an awesome match with Neville, although it wasn't a ppv. NxT has been good becuase of its simplicity and thats where the demon is good at. His entrances have been great. I seriously agree that WWE should let him do variety of other paints which he used before WWE. The end of his reign was also awesome and way too unpredictable. Most of us predicted Balor's loss either in London or in Dallas but in vain.

Hopes are high for Samoa Joe as a Champ.