Finn Bálor Reveals He Was Nervous Learning To Cut Promos In WWE, Recalls Advice From Paul Heyman
Finn Bálor details struggling with promos when he arrived in WWE.
With a list of accolades including six tag team titles, two runs with the Intercontinental Championship, and his Universal Championship win at SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor is now one of the more tenured stars on the WWE roster. However, coming in from New Japan in 2014, the Irishman arrived in NXT having to acclimatise to the company’s style, and he’s now opened up on struggling to cut promos when he first arrived in WWE.
Speaking with Stephanie McMahon on What’s Your Story?, Bálor discussed being nervous to cut promos in WWE before receiving advice from Paul Heyman.
“That’s another thing that’s been really difficult for me in my career is that trash talking. I’m not willing to sacrifice my dignity to say these things that I don’t mean. I know it would be better for retweets and follows. I feel like I got to this position being myself, so I shouldn’t change that ever. I started in England where it was mostly based on mat wrestling. And then I went to Japan and it was based on strong style wrestling. It was not promos. So the first time I actually had to do a promo was when I came to NXT. And I remember being so nervous because the NXT taping, and I had to come out and say, ‘I’m Finn Balor and I’m the future.’ And I remember being so nervous having to remember that line because that becomes acting. When I’m wrestling, I’m not acting. I’m in flow. I’m just going with my emotions, following what I believe is right in my heart to do. But as soon as the speaking part started, that was a real learning curve. I’ve gotten a little bit better at it over the 12, 13 years that I’m here. But it’s still… I’ve been wrestling 25 years. I’ve been doing promos 13. I’m way behind with that experience in promos. One thing I’ve kind of only started to learn recently, and I’ll credit Paul Heyman with this. He said you got to treat your promos like your matches. You’re not nervous going into your match. You don’t know every move you’re going to do. You’re just flowing and you’re there and you’re in that state. But your promos, you’re trying to memorize every word. That’s not how you execute your matches. That’s not how you should execute your promos. So recently, I’ve kind of been taking that more on board and not having like, I need it to sound exactly like this word for word. Just the couple bullet points and that’s really helped a lot.”
-Finn Bálor
At present, Bálor is the in the midst of his storyline with the Judgment Day having split from the group on the road to WrestleMania. After defeating Dominik Mysterio in a Street Fight in Las Vegas, the star has traded wins with JD McDonagh of late.
Prior to his clash with Dominik, Bálor had been focused on reaching the top of the card for the first time in almost 10 years. Across RAW in Belfast and at Elimination Chamber, Finn had two opportunities at the World Heavyweight Championship. For now, whether the company opt to crown Bálor as a world champion again in future remains to be seen.
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