WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor recently spoke with Rick Ucchino of SK Wrestling ahead of WWE NXT New Year’s Evil. “The Prince” looked back on the broken jaw he suffered at WWE NXT TakeOver 31.
“It was a confusing couple days, we didn’t really know what was going on with the doctor’s diagnosis,” said Balor. “We’d kind of been misdiagnosed with the fact that it wasn’t so bad and I might be back in the ring in six weeks, and then we got a couple second opinions, thanks to WWE. And we realized we needed surgery, and it was gonna be a little longer. But you know, the surgery was all taken care of. WWE handled it incredibly, and obviously the decision wasn’t mine with regards to what we were doing with the title, that’s always up to the office. But they said you know, we think we can get you back in the ring in three months and here we are.”
Balor also stated that he believes several factors tied into WWE’s decision to keep the title on him when he was injured.
“Obviously the integrity of the belt is of most importance, and Karrion [Kross] had just relinquished the title due to injury,” said Balor. “I guess maybe they didn’t want the same thing to happen in such a short window. And obviously with the misdiagnosis, the time frame was kind of muddled with regard to how soon I would be back. So originally, we had thought I would be back in the ring sooner rather than what we ended up with.”
“The Prince” also responded to the idea that he feels the pressure to match, or even surpass, the in-ring quality of his first match with Kyle O’Reilly when the two competitors clash at WWE NXT New Year’s Evil.
“For me, I’m not trying to follow anything,” said Balor. “I go out there with a different mindset every night, you know, you don’t go out there to have match of the year, match of the night, match of the century, match of the millennia. You just go out there to have a match and how people perceive it and interpret it is their business. But for me, I’m going out there to do what I love, to feel alive, to push myself to the limit, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”
The full clip is available here:
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