NXT champion Finn Balor recently spoke to Bleacher Report to hype tonight’s Takeover Vengeance Day pay per view, where the Prince defends his title against the Bruiserweight, Pete Dunne. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
How he and Pete Dunne are both cut from the NXT cloth:
I think the beautiful thing about the return to NXT is that all of my opponents have differed so greatly versus each other. I came in hot, there was stuff with Johnny Gargano, there was stuff with Matt Riddle, there was stuff with Damian Priest, all completely different individuals. I think with anything, with Pete, we probably bear the most similarities to each other compared to all of the opponents I’ve faced in this second run in NXT. He’s someone who has definitely been on the rise the last couple of years, and I’m well aware of his abilities inside the ring. For me, it’s going to pose a big challenge and I’m excited about it.
Why his Takeover 2015 matchup against Samoa Joe in London was his favorite:
For me, that was such a full-circle moment in my career. Obviously, I started my career in the UK, not too far from the venue we were at. Returning there with NXT and a lot of my friends and family were front row for that night. I had a great match with [Samoa] Joe, who is absolutely one of my favorite competitors. That was a very cool night for me for many reasons, not just professionally but personally, too.
The severity of his broken jaw injury:
Obviously, at WWE, we have such incredible doctors, and it was really down to them that I remained champion,” Balor said. “There was a lot of confusion between doctors we went to locally that could have misdiagnosed the severity of the injury, and obviously with the return afterward, the window kept getting bigger and bigger. Originally, we planned I wouldn’t be out for too long and it was the dynamic of the injury that prolonged it a little bit and the healing and stuff. That was really down to the WWE doctors and making sure I was 100 percent and protected at all times. There was never any doubt whether I would relinquish the title. Maybe in hindsight, if we knew how long it was going to be, that might have been different. But at the time, we always imagined it was going to be a much shorter time frame. That’s how it went down.
Believes the NXT title will one day be defended at WrestleMania:
I feel, and rightfully so, a lot of justification and thanks for a lot of the hard work NXT has done over the last couple of years,” he said. “We’ve been building the brand, and it’s really grown into a third individual brand of WWE. I think all the titles should be held at the same level. That’s definitely the way Edge sees it, and I think that’s the way a lot of people see it. I have no doubt one day the NXT title will defended at WrestleMania.
On possibly facing Edge:
[He’s] one of the people I really admire for how gracefully he transitioned out of WWE and moved on to that next step of his life. We had spoken about that in depth many times, so to see him back now is very, very surreal. I never even entertained the possibility of us working together with his situation. For me, it’s very exciting. Obviously, I’ve gotten to be in the ring with all of the top guys in WWE, and Edge is the one I have not been in the ring with, so that’s a box I want to check. And if we can do it at WrestleMania, all the better.