Finn Balor Says Moving Back To NXT Was “Definitely The Right Move,” Talks The Demon Character Not Working On The Main Roster

New NXT champion Finn Balor recently spoke with Metro UK to talk all things pro-wrestling. Highlights from the interview can be found below.

Explains that moving back to NXT was definitely the right move for him:

I feel like returning to NXT 11 months ago was definitely the right move for me. I think a lot of people questioned it, questioned my reason or my logic behind it. For me it was something that – I want to challenge myself every night in the ring, and it felt like on Raw and SmackDown I’d put it into cruise control and was just coasting along. ‘I wanted that fresh challenge against fresh faces, people I wasn’t used to wrestling with.

Says the opportunity to have fresh matchups really excited him:

All these guys were fresh matches for me. It kind of reignited that spark for me. Not my passion for the business because I never lost that, but the passion to be in there, and the excitement and the adrenaline really came back.’ Balor was looking to take some time out after getting ‘a little burnt out’ with his main roster run, and the idea of making a switch to NXT when he was ready to come back was an appealing one.

On the Demon character not being suited for WWE main roster television:

I feel like when I made the transition to Raw and SmackDown, the working environment there – the way things happen so fast and the way TV is produced so fast – that character wasn’t really designed for that environment.I feel like we should have handled it better. I should have handled it better in the sense that I should have been the one to put my foot down and say, “Nah I don’t think we should do this. I think the return to NXT has helped me protect not only Finn and the prince, but my own integrity and also the Demon,’ he said, while noting we’ve not seen the last of the face paint. ‘I feel like the way we used it, we kinda used it as a bit of a crutch. As cool as the demon was, it was making Finn less cool in the sense that Finn would get his ass kicked and then the Demon would come and save the day.

Believes he’s developed so much more in the last 11 months than he had in 5 years:

I think I’ve developed so much more in the last 11 months in NXT than I have in maybe the previous four or five years,’ he said. ‘I’m sure we’ll get back to the Demon versus Braun Strowman, the Demon versus Bray Wyatt, the Demon versus Brock Lesnar. ‘But you know, there’s a time and place for that and right now, I’m very much focused on NXT, I’m very much focused on being true to myself and what I believe I should be doing.