5 career highlights of Finn Balor on the main roster
On July 25, 2016, WWE Hall of Famer and former Raw General Manager, Mick Foley along with Commissioner Stephanie McMahon established WWE's newest world championship, the WWE Universal Championship.
With the WWE Championship becoming exclusive to SmackDown Live after the brand split, the Universal Championship was introduced as the main world championship for Raw. Since then, the Universal Championship has been treated as one of WWE's two main world titles. Despite not being as appealing as the original World Heavyweight Championship (yes, the big gold belt), the Universal Title has certainly had its moments as we've seen some of WWE's best Superstars compete for the red belt.
Exactly three years ago to this day, WWE crowned its inaugural Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016 when Finn Balor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first champion in the title's existence. With Finn Balor winning the Universal Championship exactly three years ago to this day, this certainly seems like the perfect time to look back at 5 of Balor's best career highlights from the main roster.
Let's get right into it!
#5 Finn Balor defeats Roman Reigns in his first-ever Raw
On July 19, 2016, just days prior to SummerSlam, Finn Balor was drafted to the Red Brand of Monday Night Raw as the fifth overall pick in the 2016 WWE Draft. Upon his debut, Balor declared that he should've been the first pick for Raw and made his first brand appearance on July 25th, winning a fatal four-way match against Rusev, Kevin Owens, and Cesaro in his first match on the main roster. Later in the same night, Balor, much to everyone's surprise, defeated Roman Reigns, who had similarly won a fatal four-way match, as the former NXT Champion earned a shot at the newly inaugurated Universal Championship at SummerSlam.