Is Finn Balor Leaving NXT Again?

Finn Balor dropped the NXT Championship to Karrion Kross at NXT TakeOver Stand & Deliver last Thursday. And as is often the case when champions lose in NXT, fans are speculating whether or not this means he will be heading back up to Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown in the near future. It's well-documented at this point that Balor's return to the brand wasn't even supposed to last six months but the former Universal Champion managed to reinvent himself as "The Prince" and has been putting on one classic match after another against the likes of Kyle O'Reilly, Pete Dunne and Adam Cole.

Dave Meltzer was asked about his status on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio and stated there are no plans to move him anywhere else at this time.

Triple H addressed this type of fan speculation during one of his media conference calls last week.

"It's an interesting thing here where whenever somebody loses in NXT, they're so dominant, they're so big, they're so whatever," he said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "They have this incredible run. Then, all of a sudden, there's a bump in the road. They lose a match. Then everybody goes, 'Clearly they're going someplace else.' Why is that? It's just a funny thing, because anybody in the world loses someplace else, nobody goes, 'Oh, they're going someplace else.' There's always more to do. There's always more to proving you're the best. There's the next challenge. The next competitor. There's the next all of those things."

NXT will have its first Tuesday night episode on the USA Network tonight. Balor has not been announced for the card, though it is possible NXT finally moves forward with the feud between he and Walter. The two were scheduled to wrestler at NXT UK TakeOver: Dublin last year, but those plans were shelved when COVID-19 forced the show to be pushed from April 2020 to June 2021.

Check out the full results from TakeOver: Stand & Deliver below:

Night One

• Zoey Stark def. Toni Storm (Kickoff)
• Pete Dunne def. Kushida
• Bronson Reed Wins the Gauntlet Eliminator
• NXT United Kingdom Championship: Walter def. Tommaso Ciampa
• NXT Tag Team Championships: MSK def. Grizzled Young Veterans and Legado Del Fantasma
• NXT Women's Championship: Raquel Gonzalez def. Io Shirai

Night Two

• Killian Dain & Drake Maverick def. Breezango (Kickoff)
• NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Santos Escobar def.(Ladder Match)
• NXT Women's Tag Team Championship: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart def.The Way
• NXT North American Championship: Johnny Gargano def. Bronson Reed
• NXT Championship: Karrion Kross def. Finn Balor
• Kyle O'Reilly def. Adam Cole (Unsanctioned Match)