QUESTION - Does anyone else think that Finn Balor sucks?
 

QUESTION - Does anyone else think that Finn Balor sucks?

Although I haven't watched RAW or Smackdown in years, I often watch youtube clips of certain segments from both shows. If I understand correctly, the IWC is high on Finn Balor but I'm not impressed whatsoever.

I saw the promo he cut against Bray Wyatt on Smackdown a few weeks ago and found him to be extremely uncharismatic and boring.

Balor has a decent look to him, but I don't see him amounting to much.

What do you guys think?

I think most of us do. I mean "sucks" might be a stretch...but midcarder for sure.

I want him to be great but hes been meh. Loved his match w AJ tho

I haven't seen too much of his ring work but he seems decent.

But fuck man - his promos against Wyatt were the drizzling shits.

In his defense reading other poeples words is hard

I'm not a fan. I never saw his New Japan stuff, so when he showed up in NXT I was excited to see what he had. The stuff alongside Hideo Itami and against Kevin Owens was pretty great, but once the shock and awe of it wear off, you're left with quite a normal and boring dude.

I think they're looking for Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde aspects with him, but it's more like Bruce Banner/The Hulk, wherein it is really hard to give a shit about the normal dude in some instances. And it's not like he physically changes to become "The Demon." It's a bit goofy. But you can tell how they want to package these dual identities as action figure sets, etc. They probably find "Boring Finn" a perfectly acceptable character on that front -- the more boring he is, the more he contrasts to the conceivably more exciting presentations of him.

He also suffers a bit from the hype around him. A lot of New Japan fans throw this aura around guys that either isn't there or doesn't translate. I've heard Prince Devitt was really good, but he wasn't pushed as a top guy in NJPW, as far as I'm aware. The Bullet Club contains a lot of shit, and some internet fans are just easy to work with it because they will fall for that sort of stuff as being "cool." When it's proper crunch-time, I'm not sure he delivers.

His NXT Title run bored me. I tried to engage with the idea of a "normal guy" champion, with a bit more of a sports presentation. I'm always looking for more realism. But he's a normal guy that is about half the size of everyone else, so it's not really that realistic. Once you've seen The Demon once, you've seen The Demon every single time. I don't find too many of his matches that exciting, to be honest. I'm yet to see him against Styles, but he seems a bit peanut butter other than that. Yeah, I suppose he's pretty good, but you can claim it's all that exciting. Come to think of it, the Finn Balor/Demon Finn dynamic is very similar to peanut butter sandwiches/peanut butter toast as a dynamic. They're both peanut butter, but one is slightly toasted.

Wouldn't go as far as to say he sucks but outside of a couple of moments, he feels as just another person on the roster than anything special or mystic.

Some of it is due to him getting injured at a really bad time and some of it is due to WWE being in a holding pattern for him because they need to finish their spotlight plans for others like Lesnar and Reigns first.

I don't think he's THAT great, but he did have a pretty good "Human v. Human" match with Bray (:lol:) and a banger with AJ Styles, so he's at least capable of being in entertaining matches. AJ has great matches with everyone though.

Don't think he sucks, but I don't think there is anything special about him. Nothing I haven't seen done better in his moveset, his personality is uninteresting, and his demon persona is a flashy entrance and nothing more. As a Keiji Mutoh/Great Muta fan, it actually might even offend me.

No he's great

/thread

Promo-wise incredibly bland. And actually not a fan of his look.

But in the ring seems pretty good. Think he would be able to really step it up given the right opponents, although admittedly wasn't wowed by his match with AJ last week.

WWE has certainly pushed far worse so not going to worry too much about this one.

In-ring he is good (but there have been much better), everything else is average to poor.

To be fair I haven't seen much of his promo work but he hasn't been given much to work with since his return from injury.

The guy is a handsome bastard though and in my opinion oozes charisma from when he makes that entrance to the ring as 'normal' or 'demon' Balor.

I've been impressed with his In ring work , to me he's shown when he's with another top guy that he can really work . Also think he was majorly unlucky to get injured when winning the title, then to have him talk up coming back for the title and not putting him close to it just makes him look weak.

Vanilla midget

Hate his demon look.

I don't think he sucks. I do think he like a kid in the ring with the other guys.

I was watching and my girlfriend (who does not watch wrestling) walked in the room and said "that guy looks like a teenager why is he there?"

Daniel Bryan may be tiny, but he looks like an adult. But I like Finn's style and he's good at doing his thing.

He's decent. Should be on 205 or something. He has a place in WWE just not in the main event.

Vanilla is unfair

He’s one of the bright spots of Raw, for me

Meh.

Yeah, the demon is lame. The entrance takes forever and his music is boring. He's Irish, he really should be called Drinky McBeer and get into feuds over spilled drinks and fight all the English rasslers while coming out to a jig while reading ECG's dissertation.

Just go with an IRA gimmick and make him plant bombs.

Liked his Demon look but it looks to me that they are slowly moving dismantling that look as they move him down to jobber status

I will preface this by admitting to a “man crush” on Finn.

I think he’s had a rough introduction to the main roster; he has probably pushed too fast, too soon for a lot of fans which is jarring, and may leave a little bit of “chosen one” stink on him. He probably dominated too much when he should be working from underneath.

They went too quickly to the Demon gimmick - and messed with it with the “Demon King” presentation. They debuted it on Raw, ahead of a PPV title match, within a month of his main roster debut. The Demon persona should be something he goes to only when he needs to, why has he the Demon vs. AJ for example?

Then he got injured.

Since his return he hasn’t really done anything of importance and the deal with Bray was just terrible.

He should probably do some more to differentiate Finn from The Demon with a changed up move set and far more aggression.

His character is probably a bit on the bland side; albeit true to the character of the performer. There’s definitely comparisons to make between him and Daniel Bryan.

He has a lot of upside for me; he looks good even if on the small side, he’s got a look that girls/Women will be into, and a marketable look that kids will eat up, plus he can go in the ring. He should tick all boxes really in terms of fanbase.

On reflection he’s sort of in the same boat as Roman; maybe a heel run would have allowed him to show a bit more character (he has a heel in New Japan), before the crowd wanted to see him as a babyface?

I think as a heel he'd definitely be more "kinetic" as a personality. I hate the idea of the WWE having the Cruiserweight Title in the first place, but I'd rather see him as the cornerstone of a proper Cruiserweight Division if there is one around than what he's doing now.

I love him until he opens his mouth and says more than 2 words.....

What is realistically the best plan for Balor right now? Coming right out of that squash. Are they going to put him in the main event of Survivor Series like it never happened?

Wouldn’t bet against it.

50/50 booking

Will it "light a fire" under Finn Balor?

Meh, unfortunately. Put it down to booking or mishandling. The guy was great in NXT, and his demon entrance was incredible when he did it the first few times (the first time he did it, when the crowd were chanting "holy shit" at an entrance was amazing).

But on Raw, I can't really remember a single thing other than he won the universal title and then got injured.

I doubt there’s a plan of any kind for him after the Bray feud got derailed. Maybe they come back to that.

I thought they could do Demon v. Demon but if this whole deal is to keep Kane strong for Braun that’s probably not the best idea. Maybe they do a Monster Mash deal with Braun, Kane, Finn, and Bray?

Kane's career will end with his lips around Braun Strowman's cock in the middle of a ring somewhere. They are building up Kane so that it makes it more of a big deal when he jobs to Strowman.

He's no DB (but then again Daniel was/is a phenomenon)

but Fynn is okay when he gets going he really gets going but other than that can't say too much

Just to re-iterate once again guys, I think Balor has pretty decent wrestling skills.

I just think his personality is bland as fuck, and I can't see the fans getting behind him. This could be Drew McIntyre part deux.

It's not all about wrestling talent. Just ask Dean Malenko.

Haha, I can't remember if it was on here or somewhere else, but I actually said I could see them doing something like that for Mania.

But he's not even that captivating in the ring. He's good, but he's not as dynamic as an AJ Styles or Daniel Bryan. It all comes from the aura of what he's doing, and he's done most of it in front of people now, so they're used to it.

One thing that's hurt him to an extent is that every big match in Japan he'd come out with different paint jobs. Some of them were downright freaky looking. Wondering how Prince Devitt was gonna paint up that night actually added a cool aura of mystery about him, I feel.

But of course in WWE land, they need to monetize everything. So his painted persona has to be given a name (the Demon) and his paint job more or less has to stay consistent. The "shock" wore off after the first time really.

That's all it is though. A paint job. He wrestles the same exact match regardless. That's what I was referring to with the Muta comment. Keiji Mutoh and Great Muta are almost two completely different wrestlers. Each one makes the other more special in that regard. You don't get that with Finn.

Yeah, I was going to say just that. Finn Balor can paint himself up as many different ways as he wants, but he's still Finn Balor.

I like the idea of Finn Balor more than I like Finn Balor.

For me, The Demon should have a different style. Same finish is fine, but a different style. More aggressive, more willing to take shortcuts, less willing to dive.

Also, I feel like Finn should be afraid of the Demon. As in, he doesn't want that aspect of himself to be unleashed. Hell, that can even be part of who he is. "I'm not afraid of a fight. I fight every day of my life. I cannot let it take control of me." And people should try to get him to do so, but ultimately fail. And it should only be against top opponents that we get to see the Demon.

And from there, you could even do interesting things with it. Like have him wrestle Brock as Finn. Brock runs roughshod over him, but Finn shows a lot of heart by not giving up. Have them pause the match because of a Lesnar elbow that opens him up. He just starts saying "Oh no... oh no..." as the Doctor checks on him. Lesnar has his back to Balor and then, out of nowhere, The Doctor bails and Finn pulls himself up. The Crimson mask makes him look like the Demon, and his personality and style goes from plucky fighter to maniac driven by bloodlust. Then it becomes a different match, as Lesnar has to contend with an opponent he wasn't expecting.

Ultimately, make the Demon a distinct personality, rather than just a gimmicky pallet swap.

The problem is that I'm not sure he has that range.

His WWE work hasn't been as strong (to say the least) as his Japan stuff, they neutered him a bit (same for Shinsuke).
He is still a very attractive man however, I will say that.

I don't even get the people who find him very attractive...... yeah, he has a super shredded body, but his face oftentimes looks like Gollum, especially when he had the sides of his head shaved and you could see giant veins on the side of his head......

I'm in the same boat with that actually. He looks like an actor, I can't remember what his name is, but he's not exactly known for being attractive. To each their own, however.

Andy Serkis

Haha, nah. It was someone else. But I just realized he does look a bit like Jonny Lee Miller's less cool brother:

http://wwwimage3.cbsstatic.com/thumb...ler_copy_2.jpg

you really need to continuously watch the shows and not the abridged highlights to form an opinion

You don't need to watch every little thing a guy does on a weekly basis to form an opinion.

At least the demon look gives him SOMETHING that makes him stand out from the pack a little. But he still comes off as one of those plethora of good technical wrestlers with interchangeable personalities. And I could really care less about good technical matches if I have no investment in either guy or their story.

when he first debuted i thought he kinda sucked or was a bit underwhelming. But he's grown on me. I kinda marked out when he answered Kane's challenge. That's exactly how WWE should be booking him. I'm not big on the demon thing, but i dont mind it either. He's slowly becoming one of my favorites now.

I thought the paint job was really good in the AJ match, but i still hate the idea that went out as the demon.

Ya i like Balor as regular Balor. I like his leather jacket. I like the entire look. I can really do without the Demon.

This is true. Also, if his job is to lure you in, then he's not doing it very well. You don't have to force yourself to watch an entire TV series to know whether or not an episode hooks you.

He is too small and is just an entrance. For a small guy he is somewhat believable because he is a good wreslter and wrestles a fast high impact pace. But he is not believable against most, especially Lesnar.

this is 100% true. I know a guy who thinks CM Punk is absolutely horrible at promos because he watched one episode of Monday night raw a few years ago.

sure. but it would behoove someone to watch more than one episode before they say the whole series "sucks."

That is true. I think most people commenting would have seen more than one episode of Finn Balor though. Or maybe it just one episode and it's just been on repeat. :p

Kiss Demon ruled. This chump is just a bad cover version. Lame 1/7

So about the "demon" look When he first did it in NXT part of the awesomeness of it was you could see the illusion he was going for(open mouth with teeth) and his entire upper chest and arm were black it just looked like warpaint .When he hit the main Roster I noticed they made it a lot more cartoony then him writing demon king all over himself didnt help matters.

Plus as someone said hes stuck as the demon he probably has tons of other looks to break out but WWE love their conveyor belt branding.

I can't stand the Demon and find myself shutting it off when he's on. I think part of it is the entrance. i'm not a fan. I do like Finn Balor though and think he'd be much better as a heel. Like a Chris Benoit type of heel (not the killing your family type though). I think he'd be much better served with a big guy with him as his muscle. Think HBK/Big Daddy Cool.

The thing with Benoit is that he portrayed intensity extremely well even if he wasn't the most charismatic guy. Balor just seems like a dud to me. He has a decent look to him, but I just can't see him going anywhere. Granted - I haven't seen him that many times, but I was just extremely unimpressed as a whole.

I saw him once in some random NJPW match where he was a heel, and he seemed much better that way.

Balor would feel a lot more natural as a heel, but I think they're fairly set on him being a babyface.