NXT Champion Finn Balor spoke with the PROGRESS Wrestling PROGCast about NXT and more. Here are the highlights.
On his relationship with Matt Bloom:
“A lot of lads in WWE… obviously, I respect their opinions professionally. Of course, Triple H, 100% has been incredible for me. But on a personal level, nobody in WWE knows me as well as Matt Bloom. I’ll ask him a question with something relevant to me and how I would perform it and he will be able to tell me: ‘Okay, this is how Fergal [Balor’s first name] would do it.’ Regardless of whether that’s Finn or Prince Devitt or Pegasus Kid or whatever, that’s how I would do it. That’s someone whose opinion I trust 100%. In the ring, out of the ring and life in general.”
On Robbie Brookside:
“Whoever made the decision to bring in Robbie Brookside is a very, very smart man because they’re thinking long term. Long term. I cannot put over Robbie Brookside enough. Obviously his knowledge for the business is unbelievable, but just having him there as a person at the Performance Center, his positivity. Every morning I walk in, you might be, y’know down in the dumps and Robbie Brookside is there greeting you with a smile, you can’t help but smile, it’s infectious. I really am very lucky to have Robbie there.”
On the difference in working the WWE style and the Japanese style:
“I didn’t think there was going to be a difference. I thought: ‘Yeah, I’ll just turn up, it’ll be fine. I’ll just do my thing, just do it – just get out there, start throwing chops, throwing kicks left, right and centre and it’ll be grand. I’ll shoot it.’ It is totally different. I think it is different for the better and it has made me a more complete talent, it has made me a more complete performer and very much more aware of what I’m doing in the ring than I was before. Before I was doing things for myself – but now I’m doing it for the audience because essentially, this is for the audience’s consumption, and if they can’t see what I’m doing, what’s the point in doing it? So I’m going to try and get the very most out of everything I do in the ring, if I’m going to do it. I’m not going to waste anything or throw anything away or throw something in for the sake of it if it doesn’t make sense, I’m going to utilise every movement that I make, everything that I try to execute – I’m going to make sure I’m getting my value out of it. And the fans are getting their value out of it too.”
