WWE star Finn Balor has revealed the origins of one of his signature moves, admitting he didn’t ever think it would catch on.
Finn Balor has a number of memorable moves in his arsenal, one of which he has revealed he only started using in WWE as something to fill a spot.
Speaking on What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon, Balor noted that he enjoys working with WWE producers as sometimes he can be “too close to see the elephant” and need a fresh pair of eyes on plans for a match.
When Stephanie McMahon stated that surely he’d be able to tell what works and doesn’t based on crowd reaction, Balor noted that sometimes you don’t know what will actually get over until you’re in the ring.
He used the example of his dropkick sunset flip reversal, which he originally only used in WWE as a transition move, before noticing the crowd enjoyed seeing it.
Balor explained
“There’s a move I do all the time, I have the guy sunset flip and I’ll roll through and dropkick. I was just looking for something to fill a spot.
“I was fresh out of Japan, I had just started in NXT, and my old tag-team partner in Japan, (Ryusuke) Taguchi, had done this move. Sometimes we’d do it together in stereo.
“I said ‘You know what? Maybe I could just do that move I used to do with Taguchi.’ I did it and the place popped.
“The next time (the pop) was a little more, then a little more. This isn’t something I would’ve thought would catch on, but it did. You never know.”
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Balor uses the move he is referencing at 9:11 in the video below.
Crowd support is a top commodity in pro-wrestling, while some wrestlers and gimmicks easily get over organically, it can take a while for crowds to warm to other things, no matter how hard the thing is pushed.
Roman Reigns is a good example of this, presented as a babyface for a large portion of his singles career despite always entering to loud boos.
It was only when Reigns adopted the more intriguing Tribal Chief character in 2020 – ironically following a heel turn – that the crowd started almost unanimously giving him the reactions he was after.
With Reigns now feuding with Jacob Fatu, WWE appears to be presenting Reigns as the face and Jacob as the heel, despite crowds naturally wanting to cheer Jacob.
It will be interesting to see how crowd reactions evolve as this rivalry continues.
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