Finn Bálor on WWE booking: ‘Nobody knows anything until it happens’

Not that this will come as a terribly big surprise to anyone who’s followed WWE’s product or coverage of it for very long, but I found this quote from Finn Bálor’s chat with Adam Silverstein on CBS Sports’ State of Combat podcast (it’s actually from last week’s show, but I just discovered it via transcription on 411mania) interesting nonetheless.

When Finn returned to NXT, and a few weeks later when he introduced the heel-ish character he played in New Japan to WWE for the first time by attacking Johnny Gargano, it seemed like a genius strategic move from Vince McMahon & Triple H. Bálor had been written off the so-called main roster shows in a way that put over Bray Wyatt’s new act in a big way. After some time off to get married and enjoy a honeymoon (we’re almost positive), his return and turn generated a ton of buzz for the black-and-gold brand as they moved to live television and head-to-head competition with AEW Dynamite.

Well, to hear Finn tell it, it might have been brilliant, but it wasn’t any masterplan. At least not that anyone told him about:

“Anyone who knows anything about WWE realizes that nobody knows who’s in control, nobody knows who’s got the answers, nobody knows who’s making the decisions, nobody knows if you’re booked on Monday night, or if you’re booked on, now, Friday night, or if you’re booked on Wednesday night, or if you’re on the house shows, or if you’re on the overseas loop, nobody knows anything until it happens.

So no, there was no plan, no laid out proposal that, ‘Hey, Finn’s going to go away and in two months, he’s going to come back with a new character.’ There was nothing. It was just, ‘Dude, I need some time off, I’ve had enough, enough is enough.’

I wrestled 172 matches last year, that equates to almost 300 days on the road, and enough was enough. So I grinded my ass off for five years, and I was, I’m done, I had enough right now. I’m a human, I want to go back to being me. I’ve done everything that you’ve asked me to do. I went out there with a smile on my face. I raised my arms when the lights came on. I’ve done all your interviews, I’ve done all the media, I got up, I traveled all over the world, and now, I just need a little time for myself to re-evaluate exactly what I want because I’m done doing what you guys want, I just want to do what I want to do.”

And since what he wanted to do was to leave Hollywood and go back to Broadway, we got the electric close to the Oct. 23 episode of NXT.

What now? We’ll see. And apparently find out shortly after Bálor does.