An attempt to differentiate himself led to Bálor bringing out ‘The Demon’.
Finn Bálor’s ‘Demon’ persona first took shape in New Japan Pro Wrestling whilst competing as Prince Devitt, where the darker, more elaborate presentation first took form. He later brought the character to WWE, developing it into the dramatic alter ego seen in some of his biggest NXT and main roster matches.
Speaking to Cody Rhodes on the latest episode of What Do You Wanna Talk About?, Bálor discussed the inception of the ‘Demon’ persona, explaining that he felt he needed to make a noticeable change ahead of his match with Kota Ibushi.
“I’d recently turned heel in New Japan and I was really fighting an uphill battle because I’d been babyface for so long. Squeaky clean, white meat babyface. I was now against like the shining lights, [Kota] Ibushi, the up and coming white meat babyface. And he wears white gear, and we’re in the Tokyo Dome, 45,000 people or something like that. I’m thinking like, ‘How can I make this look different?’ I want to take everything away from the fans that they physically recognize me for. So the first idea was, ‘Oh, what if I wear like a bodysuit?’ I thought, ‘No, [Jushin] Liger wears a bodysuit.’ I’m kind of thinking about the Tokyo Dome and how small the ring is in that giant arena. I’m thinking about the people in the back, what are they gonna see? I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if it was like Ibushi wrestling against a shadow?’ And that was my original concept. I was just gonna be head to toe black, completely black. And so for the people in the back, it would look like he was wrestling against a shadow. And that kind of slowly developed into The Demon in the weeks leading up to the Dome show where we’d done it first. And side note, Karl Anderson, who was in New Japan with me at the time, I told him the idea. And he goes, ‘Everyone’s gonna laugh at you, bro. You’re gonna look stupid.’ And I said, ‘I’ll try it. Who cares?’ And I trusted him, but I said, ‘I’ll just try it anyway. It’s worth a shot.’”
-Finn Bálor
Whilst Bálor initially found success with the ‘Demon’ persona upon joining WWE in 2014, particularly during his time in NXT, the gimmick has had its share of low points and has not resurfaced over the past two years.
Bálor went on to outline some of his issues with how WWE handled ‘The Demon’, highlighting the company’s emphasis on trying to justify the character, which in turn led to diminishing his own value outside of the persona.
“Once I came to WWE, it kind of got muddled up a little bit, and there had to be a reason for why The Demon appeared. It all had to be storyline-based and advertised. And in my mind, it was always just a cool entrance. It was something that changed me into like, you know, Braveheart puts on the battle paint and he goes to war. And that’s the way it was for me. But in WWE, it had to be, ‘Well, what made him turn into The Demon? He had to get beat up and beat down and pushed to the limit to then turn into this monster.’ So then it became the point where Finn wasn’t good enough. Only The Demon could win. So then Finn was lesser than The Demon, where they’re supposed to be the same. So that was one issue I had with it. The other issue I had with it was it was always advertised, which I like it to be a surprise. Like, ‘Oh, sh*t, The Demon’s here.’ And it just comes out and kicks ass.”
-Finn Bálor
Finn Bálor last outing as ‘The Demon’ came at WrestleMania 39 back in April 2023, where he came up short to Edge in a Hell in a Cell match. With Bálor seeking to bring championship gold to The Judgement Day in 2026, perhaps this will be the year we see ‘The Demon’ return.
Elsewhere during the interview, Bálor touched on NXT UK’s impact on the UK and Irish independent scenes. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Finn Bálor as soon as we hear more.
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