WWE Fantasy Booking: Finn Balor vs Brock Lesnar
Finn Balor is arguably one of the most beloved WWE superstars, but at the same time one of the most poorly written guys on the RAW roster. He has wandered into the oblivion for a better part of the last year and even the year before. And then came 2019... when he somehow got propelled into the main event picture 'outta nowhere' and that too in a single episode of RAW. With his victory in the fatal four-way match at Monday night RAW, he became the No. 1 contender for the WWE Universal championship and got a date with 'The Beast' at Royal Rumble 2019.
While the possibility of 'The Demon' vanquishing 'The Beast' at the Royal Rumble is deeply satisfying, it does not seem to be the direction that WWE might be willing to take. It will also not be the best choice given the fact that the character of Finn Balor has not been built strongly enough to defeat Brock Lesnar.
Even his 'Demon' persona has been largely unexplored on the main roster. For all, we know, 'The Demon' shows once a year, wins a match and goes away.
Being a Finn Balor fan myself, I delved into the possible storylines with his character and came up with an exciting one... but it starts with a LOSS at the Royal Rumble.
The story goes...
At Royal Rumble, Paul Heyman, measuring the threat posed by 'The Demon' to 'The Beast', persuades Vince McMahon to make Finn Balor enter the ring as 'Finn Balor' and not 'the Demon King' to face Brock Lesnar as the Fatal Four-Way match was won by Finn Balor and not 'The Demon'.
Finn Balor, who is willing to go in as 'the Demon', is thus forced by the boss and as a result, enters as Finn Balor, 'the extraordinary man who can do extraordinary things'. He gives one hell of a fight to The Beast, and at times, comes close to winning just like AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. At one point, he looks to pin Lesnar but Paul Heyman interferes and The Beast capitalizes to retain his title.
Balor is angered by the turn of events and reaches out to Vince McMahon, the boss who never believed him and breaks things in his office. McMahon calls security and Balor is escorted out of the building and the show goes on.
In the men's Royal Rumble main event, as the countdown for the last entrants to the Royal Rumble ends, the arena goes dark as the Demon King enters to a huge pop. He eliminates everyone to win the Royal Rumble and wastes no time in challenging Brock Lesnar to a WrestleMania match for the WWE universal title.
The Demon persona is then built up for the two months before Wrestle Mania as he obliterates all competition on RAW. Even the character arc of Finn Balor is rejuvenated along with the Demon King. It all culminates in a WrestleMania main event - The Demon vs The Beast where The Demon vanquishes The Beast for good, thus sending him off to UFC.
The End
This story, if executed well, will definitely be much more satisfying than the one with just a good match without a background. It has money written all over. It will help reinvigorate the landscape of RAW which has become stale owing to certain poor decisions.
But, is WWE willing to adopt such a storyline? Or will they adopt a similar story which we have been seeing for years now - coming close but ultimately failing to conquer Lesnar'?
Only time will tell. Meanwhile, let's keep our fingers crossed.