Finn Balor On The Differences Between NXT & The Main Roster

WWE Superstar Finn Balor was today’s guest on the E&C Pod of Awesomeness. The former Universal Champion talked about his time in NXT and opened up about the differences between the NXT brand and the RAW brand. Highlights appear below.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

On What It Was Like Coming To NXT:

They were very clear from the beginning, ‘You’ll go to the Performance Center. You’ll start at NXT. You’ll work there for a bit and then you’ll be called up.’ There was no time frame given, but I figured I’d started at the bottom in England. I moved to Japan and started at the bottom in Japan. If I’m going to WWE, I should start at the bottom again. I kind of new that was the norm. I didn’t necessarily want to go straight in onto RAW because it was a big enough adjustment working a different style, in a different country, in front of different people, in a different ring. I was quite happy to go to the Performance Center and slowly adapt and adjust. Sure, it’s quite humbling at the time. You go from working at the Tokyo Dome in front of 30,000 people to doing rolls in a factory in Florida. I knew that if I keep doing what I’m doing, I’d eventually rise to the top.

When He Hit His Stride In NXT:

I felt like getting into the ring with PAC [Neville], I feel he’s one of the best in the world. Getting to do that match with him was a very Japanese style match. That was a moment where I was like, ‘OK, if we can continue doing this type of stuff, I’m sure we’ll be fine.’ I think that when I started hitting my stride was probably with Samoa Joe. That was when I really felt comfortable in the ring, felt more like myself, felt like I was starting to adapt to what WWE needed me to be, as opposed to what I wanted to be or used to be like. Working with Joe for that long stretch really helped me step into the role as Finn Balor, as opposed to Prince Devitt.

NXT Compared To The Main Roster:

It’s totally different. The whole idea of NXT is to prepare you for WWE and it did in a lot of ways, but there’s nothing that’s gonna prepare you for live Monday Night RAW when you’re used to 2,000 people in Pittsburgh at a house show. Obviously, we learned a lot on the TV tapings, but we only did those once a month and if you’re only working one match on the three episode taping, you’re not getting that many reps that often. For me, it was a huge jump moving to RAW.

Readers may listen to Edge and Christian’s interview with Balor in its entirety below: