Finn Balor reveals Seth Rollins told him to ‘stick to the plan’ after injury in Universal Title match
Finn Balor discussed his 2016 Universal Championship match against Seth Rollins, who was the inaugural titleholder. He cited that despite the injury, the two improvised a few moments in the bout but the ending was left untouched.
Balor revealed the status of his shoulder injury mid-match against Rollins for the Universal Championship in 2016 on the latest edition of the Insight Podcast. He cited not being in pain but they had made impromptu changes to spots in the match and till date refuses to rewatch the match.
“No pain, but I knew there was a big issue, and it actually came out like three more times in the match, because any time I lifted my arm to hit the ropes, it came out. I remember I got whipped to the buckle one time it came out. So I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story, and I’m not sure if I should, but I remember at one point in the match, so me and Seth, I was very lucky to be in there with Seth when it happened, because Seth is an absolute pro, and we were able to communicate, and I was able to tell him, hey, I’m hurt, so we were kind of calling the match on the fly and editing spots and changing spots and talking the whole time, so the match that we’d done wasn’t actually the match that we’d laid out.”
“I must give Seth credit, because there was a point, we were outside the ring and I was rolling him back into the ring, and I said, ‘Dude, I’m hurt. I don’t think I’m gonna be wrestling for a while. Do you want to switch to finish?’ And he said, ‘No, stick to the plan.’ I just rolled him back in, and we stuck to the plan. I often wonder what that would have done for my career if we had switched the finish.”
Balor also addressed the typical question that arises if his injury had not happened and his future as Universal Champion.
“Well, we’re still talking about this 10 years later, right? Everywhere I go, every interview I do, I get the question, ‘Hey, what would have happened if you hadn’t got injured because you were the champ?’ But if I’d got injured and lost and just went away for nine months, there’d be no like sympathy from the fans, there’d be no what ifs.”
Balor competed for the World Heavyweight Championship earlier this year. After issues with The Judgment Day imploded in March, he was moved to the SmackDown brand.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.