Will They Drop The Ball On Him?

[Hem]

NXT is full of amazingly talented guys with many standouts but I think it is commonly said that the guy with the potential to be the next big thing is Finn Balor.

I have been watching Balor since he made his debut in NXT and I loved every minute of the guy since. I will pray that this dude makes a great impact and goes onto become a huge name for the company.

The only thing that bothers me is: Will they drop the ball on him? This isn't a normal guy were talking about. If WWE drops the ball on a guy like Tyler Breeze, it'll be fine. It won't make a huge difference in the WWE. But if they drop the ball on a guy like Finn Balor I think the WWE will be a different place.

I hope he doesn't end up dwindling around the card like Bray Wyatt or someone. What do you guys think about Balor? Do you think he can be huge or will the ball be dropped?

 

[Sheamus' Suntan]

The thing is, unless Finn Balor is pushed to the moon, ALL of the IWC will see it as a "ball dropped." That much is a fact. Finn Balor will do JUST fine. He'll get what he deserves, depending on how hard he works.

Balor is amazing, don't get me wrong, but they won't give him what isn't deserved. While we (for the most part) love him, the crowd may not connect to him. He's strange. An enigma. But he's also VERY good in the ring. He's also not the largest of guys.

It'll be what it'll be. I can't say he'll succeed or fail yet because simply put, I don't know. HOWEVER, back when Rollins was in NXT, he was being named as the "NEXT BIG THING". Talent relations hadn't seen someone so talented come through developmental. Rollins was tipped for big things. He since has had one of the most memorable Wrestlemania moments in the history of the company and is in the midst of his first major title reign. Balor is being treated, from my understanding of the reports I have read, with very very similar regard. The talent on WWE shows can see it also. If trainers and talent are seeing it all, it can only mean good things for Finn Balor.

 

[ASKane]

Patience, Good Planning and Booking will allow him an opportunity to rise to the top but it all depends on what your definition of dropping the ball is because he is certain to be a major feature of WWE TV over the next 10 years unless there is health or legal issues. The issue he will have in rising to the top is once this new generation find there feet and establish themselves there is alot of competition, the new generation for WWE is deep with talent and being able to make him a major star may be difficult as WWE will want to do the same for Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose, Wyatt, Zayn, Neville, Owens, Itami and others so if upper mid carder isnt classed as dropping the ball the I doubt WWE will but if dropping the ball is no real stretch as the top guy on TV then they might

 

[Navi]

The one thing he has going for him is HHH and Regal are high on him, so if Vince tries to put his two cents in and change anything, they might be able to convince him Balor is okay as he is.

Balor isn't the biggest guy on the roster, and that might work against him in Vince's eyes. But he has the talent and the entrance with the face paint. The fans will love it. He definitely has more going for him than Adam Rose and Bo Dallas did when they debuted, so I think he'll be fine, they're still around arent' they?

The only ones the WWE dropped the ball on was the Ascension. It didn't help that the announcers helped to bury them the first night out, and they've done nothing with them ever since. That was a huge disappointment to me, and makes me worry about all the talent coming up from NXT. Thank God they didn't do the same with Neville. Balor should be fine, but we have to wait till he debuts to see what happens, then we can be up in arms.

 

[OYDK]

WWE doesn't drop the ball (or rarely), the talent drops the ball. I mean, sure the booking can be horrendous, but great performers will always get over in spite of everything. Chris Jericho did it, Rey Mysterio, The Rock, Daniel Bryan, you name it.

If Finn Balor has the talent, which I wholly believe he does, he will get over in spite of everything put in front of him. If not, than he dropped his own ball.

 

[chuckmdubya]

The performance he put on at takeover rival was the best singles match I have seen in a pretty long time. No doubt he has the wrestling skill and the charisma to be a big star.
Wrestling fans get tired of a lot of things, Gimmicks, Storylines, Catchphrases, etc... But one thing they don't get tired of is good wrestling and good wrestling moves. A good example is the RKO, no matter how many ways we see it done, we always cheer for it.
This will work in Balor's favor. I see a lot of pre-blaming the company for a possible demise of Balor, but what if he gets the Roman Reigns treatment from the fans? What if he gets pushed and fans revolt against him. That seems to be the pattern lately, not liking the guy the Company wants as champ.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think that there's a guarantee that some fans will make a claim of WWE dropping the ball with Balor if WWE doesn't use him in ways that correspond to their fantasy booking scenarios. Since there's very, very little chance of that happening given some of the insanely unrealistic ideas and standards some fans are going to have, the "WWE has dropped the ball with Finn Balor" threads will be making an appearance somewhere down the line. Balor is someone that some fans claim as an "indie guy" even though he was a major star in New Japan for about 6 years before being signed by WWE, but he has that "look" that labels him as an "indie guy" in the eyes of some fans as he's right at about 6'0" and a shade under 200 pounds.

As with anyone else coming out of NXT, a lot can depend upon how much potential Vince sees, how much about Balor is going to have to be changed in order to suit Vince and how sore Vince's overly inflated ego is concerning the fact that there are some fans who feel that NXT is the stronger product as a whole with Balor being one of the reasons those fans feel that way.

 

[Prince Vee]

To be honest I don't see Finn Balor to get pushed to the moon once he gets into the Main Roster. Not a single person in WWE can deem him in a wrong way. Apparently, He got superior talent than anyone in the NXT!

But he isn't an young guy who can be the next top guy for the next 7 or 8 years. Yes obviously he can achieve a lot even if he gets only a little career in WWE. But everything depends on the time. I don't wanna book my fantasy story about the career of him and get disappointed when he doesn't get it.

The only thing that we can say certainly about his career in WWE Main Roster is he should make his debut sooner rather than later. When I mean sooner I really do mean super sooner! It doesn't matter how much star power is in WWE already. This guy can still make an impact!! But he shouldn't spend so much time in NxT anymore!

Cheers!!

 

[Vanilla Midget]

Balor is talented enough to get past most stereotypical WWE bad booking. He cleared the first hurdle, he didn't get a stupid name (although Ziggler made it past that). He hasn't been saddled with a too gimmicky gimmick and they've been treating him like a star in NXT so far as how he's talked about by other characters, and the calibre of matches he's booked into.

An argument can be made for any guy who isn't pushed to the top of the company as "dropping the ball" as it's all subjective. We all like different wrestlers, for different reasons. Some we all just agree upon more than others. If Finn never holds a world title and never main events WrestleMania, but holds multiple IC titles, tag titles, and puts on some legendary matches, is that dropping the ball? Some would say yes, others no.

The chance of dropping the ball on a talent exists for every talent that works for any company ever, and the truth of that ball drop is so subjective, because who's to say who could have been a sure fire star if they never drew a dime? Balor is one of those talents that comes along and gives you the vibe that they're going to do truly incredible things. It's a safe bet that even if they give him a crappy gimmick when he hits the main roster, like a drunken wrestling Irishmen or something, he posesses the goods to find some way to polish it into gold.

 

[blueskyy]

I guess I'm the only one swimming against the tide. Just some disclaimers first... I seldom watch NXT, I've only seen 2 of his matches, and one of his promo from many months back...

I disagree that he is very good in the ring. I don't even consider him good in the ring from what I've seen.

He doesn't have a rhythm when he wrestles (performs in the ring). His pacing is bad. He wrestles most of the time at half speed (no, I'm not talking about rest holds or interactions with the audience), and then all of a sudden bust into double speed.

He doesn't have any in-ring psychology, he doesn't react to the audiences when he is wrestling. His movement doesn't flow in the ring, his moves doesn't link up with one another. When he's wrestling, it doesn't look to me like he is wrestling his opponent, it looks more to me like he is checking them off his checklist.

I honestly hope I was wrong about him, that it is just a bad first impression or something... BUT, if that is what Finn Balor is truly about, and WWE drops the ball on him, I truly won't be blaming the WWE.

The reason why I don't watch NXT is because I wanted to be impressed by them. I've been impressed by the Shield, by Wade Barrett's mic skill, and by Neville's in-ring abilities...

 

[RicSpade]

This is the problem everyone wants the indie guys to get pushed ASAP, but look what happened to Punk when they tried to fast track push him the first time, it wasn't quite a success now was it? Sheamus had a great look, but won his first title too quickly and now had to reinvent himself after an injury...I can name a few more but you get the picture everyone think Balor needs to go from the indies to the main roster as champion, is he a hell of an athlete? Hell yeah he is, but so is Zayn, Owens, Itami, Joe when he arrives, if we took every indie guy and immediately sent them up Tyler Black wouldn't be as good as he is now, Neville is getting fed right now to a certain degree, and thats the problem with the main roster, you have guys like Barrett, Ziggler, Bryan you are continually building, so you can't just throw every NXT guy and propel them to the top, because then you get the oen guy who went from being a top star to being the brooklyn brawler....js

 

[whoopin' ass]

yes they will only because in order for anyone to be successful on the main roster, it usually means totally changing what they do. I think the face and body paint is going to be the biggest issue as that is what makes him stand out but wwe doesn't really go for that. Goldust yes but that is an old gimmick and Stardust is tied to that but really, has it help Cody any? They try it here and there but not a lot of top talent ever has it so I think that could be an issue and without that, there are several guys there already who a good in the ring and can talk.

Biggest issue with bringing anyone up from NXT is that it doesn't matter if you are the hottest free agent out there, you are the best talent in NXT, ROH or wherever - you are not on the main roster yet. No matter how good you are, the moment you hit the main roster you have Cena, Orton, Lesnar and a dozen other guys in front of you that are established that Vince will run to before you. Even look at The Shield - they were given a solid push, taking out everyone on the roster but slowly that stopped happening and they were not viewed as big of a threat as they were when they first debuted. That is the problem Balor or anyone coming up has - no matter what they did in NXT, they need to pretty much start all over on the main roster. Paige debuted and won the Divas title on her first night - unlikely you will ever see anyone do that for the wwe title. Not saying it is bad but they spend so much time building them up in NXT, why not just move them to the main roster and do the same? Instead of spending 6-12 months in NXT doing feuds that won't matter once you hit Raw, why not to the same thing on Raw and then they are established? That's why so many people are upset when these guys don't get a great push right away - we saw them get built up on NXT, now we are seeing it all over again on the main roster. Now things may change - Balor is one of HHH's projects so maybe he will come in and get a great push right away but it is tough to say.