WWE's Finn Balor Recalls NJPW Origins Of Demonic Body Paint

WWE star Finn Balor's Demon character is one of the most unique personas in pro wrestling, and he recently detailed how he came up with it.

Balor debuted the persona during his time in NJPW, recalling how he came up with the idea for his match against Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom in 2014. 

"So the original concept behind the body paint was, I'd been squeaky clean white meat babyface in Japan for a long time. I'd recently turned heel, and I was against a new up-and-coming babyface, Kota Ibushi, who's an incredible athlete. And it was Wrestle Kingdom, which is WrestleMania of New Japan, and I'm in a singles match against him. My idea was that I wanted to be like light versus dark, like good versus evil," he said on "What's Your Story?" "And my idea was he wears white gear. So then I thought, 'Oh, wouldn't it be cool if it looked like, from the people who were way up in the back — this is a baseball stadium — if it looked like he was wrestling against a shadow?'" 

Balor revealed that the initial idea was for him to wear black paint all over his body, but he eventually added the Demon features to create his unique look.

"So I was just gonna paint myself completely, head to toe, black paint. So it looked like from the people far away, he was wrestling a shadow. And in the time that I came up with this idea and we actually executed it, it morphed into more of a demon look than a shadow," he added.

Balor seldom uses the Demon gimmick on WWE television, with the character's most recent appearance coming at WrestleMania 42, where he defeated Dominik Mysterio. The former Judgment Day star has tried to keep the use of the Demon to a minimum and hasn't necessarily been pleased with how WWE has treated the persona in recent years.