A week from today, on July 4, Finn Bálor faces Kevin Owens in Tokyo, Japan with the NXT title on the line. All indications are that the two men will headline an event that also features the most expensive performer in Vince McMahon's employ, Brock Lesnar.
Based on his long run in New Japan Pro Wrestling as Prince Devitt, a positive reaction from the live Japanese audience is almost assured. But this is a WWE Network exclusive event - if not quite a pay-per-view (PPV), still a key feature of pushing subscriptions to the streaming service. To do that, they need to make Finn Bálor as marketable as possible to match up with a man who's been on Raw for the last two months, and seem worthy of headlining over the former WWE champ Lesnar.
Realizing they'd done very little to develop the handsome, talented Irishman beyond his awesome entrance ahead of this spotlight moment, WWE produced a series of documentary videos that have been airing on NXT the past few weeks. In two weeks, they've managed to do more to introduce us to Bálor and give the audience reasons to root for him than his past six months on the show.
With the third installment of "Who is Finn Bálor?" set to air this Wednesday during an episode he'll wrestle on with Samoa Joe in a tag match against Owens & Rhyno, WWE Network has also announced that they'll air a 30 minute special on him entitled Finn Bálor: The Demon Revealed on Thursday, July 2 at 10:30PM Eastern.
While it's likely that this is the three segments that will have already run on NXT, that they're getting the material out there to a wider audience ahead of Beast in the East (and its subsequent addition to the on-demand library) is a smart move.
Does it indicate that we're getting a new NXT champ next Saturday?