Finn Balor Talks Coming Up With The Bullet Club, Not Being Allowed In The NXT Ring, His Body Paint

Finn Balor has been the talk of NXT since debuting with the promotion in late 2014, to the point where Chris Jericho requested to work with Balor at live events this summer. Balor appeared on Talk is Jericho last week and talked about his career in Japan, and making his character unique.

When discussing why he stayed with New Japan for so long instead of accepting WWE's offers, Balor noted that he really wanted the opportunity to work as a heel. He got that chance, and the Bullet Club took off.

"I was the one who came up with it. I pitched the name and everything. It was going to be just me and King Fale. (He) was going to be my bouncer, but Gedo had this idea of lumping all the foreign guys together," Balor said.

He said the next week, they were scripted to beat down NJPW mega star Hiroshi Tanahashi. Balor said that he got the name 'Bullet Club' because his nickname was "the real shooter" and Karl Anderson's nickname was "Machine Gun."

Ultimately, Balor ended up going to NXT, although he was hesitant. He said that the switch was a big change for him, as he's used to performing regularly, and couldn't even wrestle there at first.

"The first month I wasn't even allowed to get in the ring. You just have to sit out and roll. It's kind of to help you adjust to being in a different culture and being in a different system. I was just itching to get in there. That was hard enough," said Balor.

Balor also spoke about the origins of his extremely popular body paint.

"My original idea was cover my whole idea with black paint, like a shadow in the ring. I tracked down a painter, she came on the day. Karl Anderson said 'this is the stupidest idea.' When the woman came, she had a portfolio, and the designs were so incredibly detailed. We met in the middle and did kind of a demon. I wasn't sure how the crowd was going to react, like does everyone think I look stupid? In the long run it worked against me and got me over as a babyface," Balor said.

You can listen to the podcast at this link.