Roman Reigns will defend his WWE Universal Championship against “The Demon” Finn Balor at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view tonight in Columbus. Though Reigns’ title run has already surpassed a full calendar year, WWE has given fans plenty of reasons to believe his reign might actually be in danger. Balor has never lost on the main roster when he uses his “Demon” persona, it’s the only match on the card with any kind of “extreme” stipulation and the company has already announced Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar for Crown Jewel next month. This gives off the idea that Reigns is too distracted by “The Beast” and might overlook Balor.
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But Reigns seemed to brush that theory right off while promoting the match on Sunday. He tweeted, “I don’t get distracted. I operate at the highest level. Big E. Lashley. Montez. Demon. #ExtremeRules ends the same way. Me standing in the center of my ring.”
Balor returned to the SmackDown roster over the summer after spending roughly two years back on NXT. During that time he debuted a significantly more intense persona as “The Prince” and never even hinted at using “The Demon” for his big matches. He’s gone back and forth in interviews about how he feels about the alter-ego, once saying it felt like a “crutch” during his first main roster run.
“I feel like when I made the transition to Raw and SmackDown, the working environment there – the way things happen so fast and the way TV is produced so fast – that character wasn’t really designed for that environment,” he told Metro. “I feel like we should have handled it better. I should have handled it better in the sense that I should have been the one to put my foot down and say, “Nah I don’t think we should do this. I think the return to NXT has helped me protect not only Finn and The Prince, but my own integrity and also the Demon.”
“I feel like the way we used it, we kinda used it as a bit of a crutch,” he added. “As cool as the demon was, it was making Finn less cool in the sense that Finn would get his ass kicked and then the Demon would come and save the day.”
Do you think Balor has a chance in his match with Reigns tonight? Or is “The Head of the Table” correct in his prediction? Let us know in the comments below!
