Former WWE RAW star addresses rumor Brock Lesnar asked to face him
Finn Balor is still unsure if Brock Lesnar requested to face him at the 2019 WWE Royal Rumble.
Braun Strowman was originally supposed to face Lesnar at the event before he was replaced by Balor. According to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, Lesnar asked WWE’s decision-makers if he could take on the Irishman in a first-time-ever match.
Speaking on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast, Balor said he has a good relationship with Lesnar’s former on-screen advocate, Paul Heyman. However, he does not know who came up with the idea to book the match on short notice:
“I don’t know,” Balor said. “I heard rumors too. We had had a brief encounter in New Japan a long, long time ago when I was a young boy [rookie], he was Heavyweight Champion. I had a good relationship, and still do, with Heyman, so I’m sure there was something between the two of them. I can’t give you [an answer], who’s to say if he requested it. I showed up one day and they said, ‘I think you’re going into a program with Brock.’ ‘Awesome, that sounds great.’”
Finn Balor’s eight-minute match against Brock Lesnar was widely viewed as one of the best from the 2019 WWE Royal Rumble event. The finish to the match saw Lesnar make Balor submit to the Kimura Lock.
Finn Balor on his match against Brock Lesnar
Finn Balor hopes to face former opponents AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns again in WWE one day.
The inaugural Universal Champion, who currently performs in NXT, also revealed he has fond memories of facing Brock Lesnar:
“Another one is Brock Lesnar,” he said. “From my career, I feel like that’s one of my favorite matches. It was a short match but the feeling in the ring that night was so pure and so, I don’t know how to explain it, it felt like you go through all these days of hard work and grind and pressure and traveling to get to a moment where you’re stood in the ring and you’re completely free and completely at ease with everything, and nothing else matters except this moment.”
Finn Balor added that he would have a happy life if he could bottle up the feeling he had during his match against Brock Lesnar.
Please credit Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.