On Saturday night, Finn Balor fought Cody Rhodes in a Street Fight at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. He promoted the event on “Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg” prior to the show. Balor was asked to explain the distinction between televised and non-televised events:
“Nassau Coliseum is such a great venue. There is so much great wrestling history there. Of course, the fact that this WWE event is non-televised makes it so much more enjoyable for the talent involved there. You know, we’re not under any kind of time restraints with regards to TV events. So this is a real fun event, especially for us and for the fans. Hopefully, I can pull out a victory in this street fight against Cody Rhodes.”
“It’s (non-televised events) a lot more relaxed from top to bottom. TV days, we have to get there at two. Live event shows that are non-televised, normally we’re expected to get there at 5:30 if it’s a 7:30 show, but sometimes I might be a little late for that. I feel the main difference is just the energy in the building. It seems to be a lot more intimate. That’s not in the sense of it being a smaller venue. It just means like there’s a lot more fun interaction between the talent and the fans. So for me, it feels a lot more personal, a lot more intimate. It’s what I started in this wild industry for and it’s why I continue to still do it. It’s really what I love.”
If he enjoys being a heel more than a being a babyface:
“752 times better. Yeah, I’m just out there having a wild old time really enjoying myself letting them go and kind of feeling it in the moment. Sometimes there’ll be a negative reaction, sometimes there’ll be a positive reaction, but there’s always a reaction, and that’s what we have to kind of work off. It’s been a lot of fun for me since turning heel so to speak.”
On the death of Bray Wyatt:
“Yeah, it was a pretty somber atmosphere in the locker room. I had a couple days following the news. A lot of us attended a ceremony in Florida yesterday. You know, celebrate Bray’s life, and you know, sadly that seems to be happening far too often in the business, losing people so young, but hopefully we can continue to make Bray proud. I’m sure that’s what he would want and that’s what we intend to do in Nassau.”
“Obviously I’d had the opportunity to work with him a lot as Finn versus Bray, as the Demon versus Bray, as Finn versus The Fiend. The one thing that I’m sad that we didn’t ever get to get to was this Fiend versus Demon match and that was something that we talked about at length. We were kind of hoping that was going to happen eventually, but you know, it’s not to be. Going back to the show must go on, you know, if something was to happen to me, I want you guys to know that I want the show to go on, and I’m sure knowing Bray as well as I do, he definitely wanted the show to go on and then that’s what we’ve done for him.”
On JD McDonagh:
“This kid walked into my gym in Ireland when he was 12 years old and said, ‘Hey, I want to be a wrestler.’ I thought, ‘You’re a little young, but let’s get to work.’ So I’ve known JD since he’s 12 years old. He’s had my back that long, 20 years counting. I’ve got his back. He’s not a fully fledged member of the Judgement Day. It’s something that I’ve kind of been pitching to Damian and the gang. They’re not fully convinced yet, but, you know, I think I can wear them down and they’ll come around eventually. But you know, right now I would call JD an associate.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
