Finn Balor Talks Recapturing NXT Gold, Triple H, Kross, More

Finn Balor has captured his second NXT Championship after defeating Adam Cole and a tremendous amount on the September 8th episode of NXT.

Immediately after the match, he spoke with TVInsider about the importance of his relationship with Triple H, the father of NXT, and how that has changed over the years and continued to facilitate growth.

“Working with him has been absolutely fantastic. I came to WWE about six years ago with a lot of uncertainty. There were expectations, but personally, I was uncertain how it was going to go. I feel like myself and Triple H struck an understanding early on in my career at NXT. It has grown and developed. He is someone I can say I’ve spent in and out of the ring more than anyone else. I trust his direction and take his advice. He’s someone I feel very fortunate to have developed a friendship with the last couple of years.”

He continued, “Maybe I’ve proven myself to him as someone he can trust to get something done. We have a good bond. Having gone through what he has in building NXT and the brand, hopefully, I won’t let him down by continuing to build the brand and perform at the highest level.”

Balor also spoke about the previous champion, Karrion Kross suffering an injury and mediately after winning the championship, similar to how he suffered an injury immediately after winning the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam 2016. Balor says he has passed on wisdom regarding how to weather the storm.

“When I heard the news about what happened to Karrion Kross,” said Balor. “I had so much sympathy for his situation. It was almost an identical scenario we’ve been through. We’ve had conversations and discussed how it will affect you and can affect you. I’ve shown you can come back. I think a lot of people think giving up the title is the hardest part. That’s not necessarily the fact because at that point when you’re hurt and can’t perform, the focus is on getting healthy. The hardest part for me was when you get healthy and all the doctors tell you you’re cleared. There is the self-doubt of thinking, ‘Am I good enough now? Can I still perform? Will I be as good as I used to be? Will the people want to see me?’

“There are all these internal questions you ask yourself when you’re about to come back. That was the hardest moment for me. We’ve discussed that. He has to learn from this experience and come back stronger than ever and better than ever and more mentally focused. As the NXT champion, that’s the match I want. I was in his situation where I had to relinquish the title and wanted a match. He should want this match. I want him to have this match. I feel he needs to beat me to reclaim his championship. I need to beat him to claim that I am the champ. That’s the match we need to get to.”