Following his draft to WWE Raw, WWE.com spoke with Finn Balor and below are some interview highlights:
Which WWE Raw star he is most looking forward to facing:
“You know, you’re gonna think I’m making this up. But for the longest time, there has been a kind of mutual respect/competitiveness between myself and Seth [Rollins], I think. We’d done a panel the morning of [NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn], and it was something we touched on that when I was in Japan and Seth was in the independents in the United States, we’d always hear each other mentioned in the same breath, and it was like, ‘Who’s better?’ We’d never really had a chance to challenge each other one-on-one, but it was something that was always very much in the back of our minds.
“We both take a lot of pride in our work and are very competitive, and of course we both want to prove to each other that I’m better than him or he’s better than me. But he’s someone I’ve looked up to for a long time in WWE. He’s definitely the number one person I’m looking forward to wrestling, and it just so happens to be at SummerSlam.”
Is there extra pressure being labeled “the face of the future”?:
“You know, people are always going to label you as something. People can label me as the face of the future, but I’ve been doing this for 16 years. For me, this is nothing new. I’m very assured of my ability when I’m in the ring. Sure, I’m new to Raw and I’m new to WWE, but I’m not new to being in the ring. In the ring, I consider myself quite capable. I can handle myself. That’s a very flattering moniker, to be called the face of the future, and hopefully I can live up to that. But for me, you know, it’s my past, present and hopefully my future. Wrestling is my life. So for me, it’s not just the future. It’s literally everything I do.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
