WWE Rejected Finn Balor's Pitch To Join Smaller Brand

Before Finn Balor began his second stint on the WWE main roster last year, the former NXT and WWE Universal Champion wanted to wrestle for another brand under the WWE umbrella.

As a guest on "Out of Character with Ryan Satin," Balor said he pitched the idea of working for NXT UK.

"I wasn't super excited about the idea of returning to the main roster," Balor said. "I felt like there was potential for me to perform in NXT UK and perform with all those guys. That was something that I felt super interested in. I pitched the idea to [Triple H] at the time.

"They were interested in it, but they were going to have to renegotiate my contract because there was budget restrictions and it was just going to prove too difficult, and maybe it wasn't a smart move career-wise at this age. I've become very aware that there might be a clock starting to tick. I'm more aware of that now than I was five years ago. I thought, well, I really need to get a good run on the main roster. They came to me with the idea of coming back and working with Roman [Reigns] and how could you turn that down right? It was a no-brainer."

Although Balor was positioned as a top guy during his second main roster run, he lost his first two title matches with WWE Universal Champion Reigns, quickly shutting down the hype surrounding his return.

NXT UK is on hiatus and being rebranded as NXT Europe in 2023, so it's possible Balor could still end up working for the European brand in the future.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Out of Character with Ryan Satin" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.