WWE star Finn Bálor discussed various topics with Radio Times, including his match against World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, which allowed him to rectify the mistake of relinquishing the title.
Bálor said, “I feel like it’s time to to rewrite the narrative. For 10 years, people have been saying, ‘What if? What if he didn’t get hurt? What if he remained champion? What if he didn’t have to relinquish the title? And I feel like, no matter what I’ve done over the last 10 years – be it win multiple Intercontinental Championships, go back to NXT to win the Championship, a United States Championship, multiple Tag Team Championships – no matter how hard I try to remove this little stain from my career, it’s like… what if I can’t do it? But I feel like this is the moment where I can finally right that wrong, rewrite my narrative and change everyone else’s perspective of my career, because people seem to perceive it as a failure, that I never recovered from that injury, where in fact I look at it as a success story, where I was this kid from a small town in Ireland with no wrestling industry, no wrestling schools, barely any wrestling on the TV, with a goal of having one match – and 16 years later, on my first night on Raw, I beat Roman Reigns. On my first Pay-per-view, I pinned Seth Rollins. So for me, that’s a success story, not this great tragedy that everyone wants to talk about.”
On facing Punk in Belfast:
“To share the ring with someone who I’d never wrestled before, whose body of work I’ve admired over their whole career, that was one part. The other part was [taking part in] a world title match in my home country, with 18 of my family members watching. So that was a real special night.”
On bringing back his “Catch Your Breath” theme song:
“I personally love the alternative to Catch Your Breath – but there’s just something about that song that is just so catchy, and people can interact with it so well. It’s got such energy. I feel like it was the right time [to bring it back]… Embarrassingly enough, the reaction of the crowd was so loud that I actually couldn’t hear the music cue and I missed the first light pop. [laughs] I was like, ‘It feels like it should be now, but I can’t hear it…’ and then it was too late! But I think that kind of added to the magic.”
On tensions in The Judgment Day:
“Hopefully I can erase this stain from my career, bring gold back to the clubhouse and get the Judgement Day back on top. You know, obviously it’s been a rough couple of months. We’ve kind of been at each other’s throats, tensions are high, but this is business, right? This is WWE – and we’re all professionals, we’re all striving to be the best. People are gonna clash, but I love Dominik, I love JD [McDonagh], I love the girls. We’re a unit. We’re a family. And hopefully I can get this one over the line in Chicago… then smooth-sailing into WrestleMania.”
