Finn Bálor reveals last-minute changes affected high-profile WWE match
Finn Bálor signed with WWE in 2014. He celebrated his 10-year anniversary in May. Over the years he has competed in several high-profile contests and perhaps none come close to his Hell in a Cell bout against Adam 'Edge' Copeland at WrestleMania 39.
This was fatefully Edge's final match at The Show of Show as before the end of 2023, he signed with AEW. Speaking on the What's The Story podcast a few days ago, Bálor candidly discussed the difficult situations both athletes had to go through heading into the show. The inaugural Universal Champion revealed that what ultimately was put together in the ring was not the way either man intended to go about it.
"There's a whole backstory to the whole day. But we pretty much got frustrated with a lot of things that were happening on that day. The match we wanted to do wasn't the match we ended up doing. And we had to change a lot of things like last minute. Literally 20 minutes before it went down. I think we both were a little bit annoyed with just how the day had gone," Bálor said. [From 16:24 to 16:46]
The Judgment Day member then went on to give details of the match itself, which is now infamous for the 14 stitches The Prince had to get after Edge had thrown a ladder right into his face mid-way through the contest.
Edge later disclosed that WWE had no plans for him after the feud with The Judgment Day culminated
After defeating "Demon" Finn Bálor inside Hell in a Cell, Edge and The Judgment Day moved on to other things. Despite wanting to be more involved, The Rated-R Superstar found out that WWE wanted his appearances to be limited because otherwise, it would be less special.
Speaking to The Ring Wrestling Show after he made his AEW debut at WrestleDream, Edge clarified that there were no hard feelings between him and his former employer.
The Hall of Famer just felt that his WWE contract—which was 10 matches a year—was not enough and that he could have gone deeper with the storylines he was involved in. Instead of how he was used on television, appearing randomly at irregular intervals.
"Honestly, it was after Judgment Day because okay, that story is done. So, hm? It was nothing from either part, there’s no ill will, there’s no hard feelings at all. I’m actually really happy about that because I love that company. It was just really at a certain point, you’ve been here 25 years — I was contracted for ten matches a year. I offered more because I thought, hey if I’m around more, I can contribute more and we can do deeper storylines but to their point, and it’s a very good point, [if] you’re around more, it feels less special and I know that," he said.
Finn Bálor disclosed that his current WWE contract is for five years, and he hopes to continue in the Stamford-based promotion for as long as he can.
If you use the first quote, please credit the original source and credit Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.