Finn Balor Explains Why He’s Back on WWE SmackDown

Finn Balor made his surprise return to Friday Night SmackDown during last week’s episode on Houston, marking the first time he’s been on WWE‘s main roster since jumping over to NXT in October 2019. Balor was a guest on this week’s edition of The Bump where he reflected on his recent role as “The Prince” and declared he was back to become WWE Universal Champion again. Balor famously became the first Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016, but had to relinquish the title one day later due to an injury he suffered in his match with Seth Rollins. He would not be back in the world championship picture until Royal Rumble 2019, where he lost to Brock Lesnar.

“Obviously, you know, myself and the Intercontinental Championship, I’ve had a lot of association recently, but I think me personally, I have a lot of unfinished business with the Universal Championship,” Balor said (h/t Wrestling Inc.) “It’s something that gets brought up all the time. ‘What if I hadn’t gotten hurt?’ ‘What if things had been different?’ For me, it was the journey and what made me the man today. I’m very grateful for how it panned out. I can’t change it. But I feel like there has to be something revisited with the Universal Championship, and that’s why I’m back on SmackDown.”

He also reflected on his second run in NXT, believing that his time as “The Prince” was the best run of his pro wrestling career.

“The idea of going back to NXT was to give Finn Balor a break from RAW and a break from SmackDown,” Balor said. “It was to reset the character. It wasn’t supposed to be anything more than three months. It was to give me a little rest off TV, rest off the road and to kind of give me a reboot and revamp. Obviously, things folded a lot differently than we expected; it turned into a two-year run almost in NXT.

“For me, personally, I feel like it’s the best work that I’ve put into my career. To do that at 19, 20 years into your career is quite strange,” he continued. “I really feel like I’ve just started to come into my best stride in NXT in recent months. I’m so grateful, obviously, for the opportunity to be in NXT and to be part of a new NXT landscape that’s completely changed. The guys there have completely changed the boundaries of what NXT is. To be in the ring with guys like Kyle [O’Reilly], guys like Pete [Dunne], it’s impossible to not have a good time.”