Judgment Day has never been shy about culling its leadership or senior members and sending them on their way with their pink slips and retirement packages in hand.
Edge was the first victim. He was removed from the group as Finn Balor was joining to form the stable around Balor, Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley. Over time they added Dominik Mysterio and longtime Balor runningmate JD McDonagh. Later on Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez joined in succession and were used to remove Ripley and facilitate turning her face.
Dissension and backstabbing are the norm in the group, with both Priest and Ripley’s world title aspirations functioning to lead to their removal from the stable — Dom’s storyline preferences for Morgan played a TINY role in that too. That allowed for a tonal shift in the group that both allowed Mysterio to shine as the young prospect, while Priest and Ripley were unshackled from the group and allowed to grow as singles acts.
Balor is arguably a much more unique case given his body of work, coupled with Mysterio simply being more than ready to front the faction himself. It feels like a formality.
Stable Architect
Whether you’ve followed him as Prince Devitt in NJPW or Finn Balor throughout this 10+ year WWE run, he has been a consistently impactful presence who is unflinchingly talented. Some would argue he was a trailblazer, especially where it concerns factions such as Bullet Club; his original version in its authenticity alone makes it one of the top variations of the lineup.
You could make a fair argument that without Finn Balor, Kenny Omega never hits his highs. Without that NJPW run fronting Bullet Club, as amazing and legendary as AJ Styles is, does he come into WWE as hot as he was if not for his run atop Bullet Club? It’s a fair debate, and I’d argue that as someone who’s been watching Styles for 25+ years. For a period Bullet Club had that kind of power that has only waned and hopefully died with finality this year.
It’s part of the reason Devitt-turned-Balor came into NXT and became the longest reigning NXT champion over a four year period, why he was chosen to be the first Universal champion, and why he garnered so much adoration from fans and respect from his peers. Balor is, regardless of size, one of the most impactful wrestlers of the modern era when you consider his creativity, body of work and his ability to defy expectation and preconception when you think you’ve pigeonholed him.
Judgment Day has provided Balor the platform to re-establish himself on his own merits a part from his portrayals under Vince McMahon. Upon his recruitment and excision of Edge from the group, his reassertion as a central piece of WWE TV alongside Priest and Ripley came with the caveat that there was no leader in a Bullet Club-like fashion. They were all equals, and I think this version played out better than Edge’s was going to over the long term.
Regardless of who “fronted the band” the impetus of the faction from the outset was to allow new faces with new energies to step into their own and become stalwart fixtures on WWE television. Within its existence, the present version of Rhea Ripley developed, Priest became a world champion, “Dirty Dom” has become one of the breakout stars under the age of 30 and currently holds both the AAA Mega and WWE Intercontinental championships. Surrounding that core group have been JD McDonagh and Carlito to lesser effects, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez and arguably one of the best young female wrestlers in Roxanne Perez.
Room to Catch Their Breath
Tonally, the Balor-fronted version is what gave each the space to evolve. Edge’s version always came off as Ministry or Brood lite, and in my view it was only once Balor entered the picture that Priest and Ripley’s characters became more multi-dimensional. They progressed more so than they would have under Edge who has a different style of storytelling as a “leader” or narrative focus. Balor’s track record allows his surrounding memberships to exist on even footing to grow at their own pace; I’d argue further that the key difference comes down to Priest and Ripley being Edge’s minions versus them being equals shoulder-to-shoulder working as individuals to benefit the group.
Balor’s importance to their development can’t be understated, but it’s also becoming apparent that the group doesn’t need him anymore and they’ve outgrown his function within the group. The individual pieces of the team can function in the same way, in the same framework and excel without him. That’s a credit to him, the Judgment Day as a whole and the creative team for putting them in a position to succeed, them for embracing it, and Balor for unofficially leading the group by example. They’re better than they were prior; that’s even true for those like Priest and Ripley who have departed.
Balor has mostly been a solo act in WWE, but took on this role in 2022 and ran with it. He’s continued to do so, sitting in the background becoming a 4-time tag team champion with two different partners while the younger contingent has held multiple major singles titles and excelled. Especially now with the focus being so definitively placed on Mysterio’s successes, the characters in Judgment Day are also closely connected to Mysterio. If you take away JD, you have Mysterio, Morgan, Rodriguez and Perez all with degrees of separation between them connecting each to “Dirty Dom.” Their story can exist, continue and flourish without Balor; I think if the objective was to get fresh young stars over, then it’s mission accomplished for WWE and, more granularly, Balor.
The Princes who would be Kings
If his match against CM Punk this past week was any indication fans still have a desire to cheer Balor under whatever moniker he chooses. Granted, to be fair the hometown boost might skew perception so what will be telling is how he, the group and WWE play his role within Judgment on TV once the company returns to the U.S.
Nonetheless, his strong showing, post-match handshake and embrace with the champion would lead you to think there’s more to the arrangement of the match beyond simply giving him a main event world title match near where he grew up. The pessimist could definitely also look at the booking contrasted against Drew McIntyre’s WWE title win and say they booked it because they know that glimmer of hope is there and that they could get people to believe, even for a moment, that Balor could reclaim a world championship.
I think the trajectory for the world championship goes through Punk and Breakker for the immediate future, so I don’t think Balor securing that belt is imminent. However I also think it’s far past time for Balor to truly break out in singles, which he has never truly gotten outside of NXT. How that materializes straight away more than likely involves being at odds with the remaining Judgment Day members. It’s not as though his and Dominik’s characters haven’t already had issues within the group, especially considering his ego’s inflation as he’s amassed championships. There’s a natural break they can execute that branches Balor off while then giving Dom more runway to work with and grow from.
A split serves both ends: Dom needs to run the group, which feels like the natural evolution (if not conclusion) and point to all of this, and Balor has outlived his usefulness as elder statesman to the faction. He also deserves a single run with a midcard title be it the IC or US championship should the expected be true and the world titles are tied up in the current story arcs for the immediate future. I think both have earned those spots and those rights to lead from the front, and it feels natural considering their contentiousness over the last 18 months or so.
While his place within Judgment Day is more of a feeling I’m getting, if you only look at their presentation and what we know from what’s presented on the shows, Balor’s depiction in all elements of media, combined with fans’ love for him, demonstrates it may be time for the face turn to occur; presuming that’s not what Monday’s match with Punk was and that we’re already on that road.
Realistically there are less reasons to keep Balor in Judgment Day than there are to remove him, and the more it’s thought on it feels like a disservice to everyone involved to maintain the status quo. Dirty Dom deserves the time to lead Judgment Day in his own way detached from how Edge or Balor ran it. He deserves to have his own team around him, and Balor deserves the chance to run out on his own once more. Anything else and the group is as good as pointless if the Princes remain as they are and can’t move forward to assume their own thrones on Monday nights.
