Finn Balor explains ‘huge negative effect’ NXT UK had on indies
Finn Balor feels the European indie scene is slowly starting to rebuild after the existence of NXT UK “starved” it of talent.
While appearing on Cody Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast, Balor praised OTT Wrestling in Ireland and said he believes the level of talent in the promotion is rising. Balor also addressed the impact that NXT UK had on the indies. While the brand was a huge opportunity for British and European wrestlers, Balor thinks the scene is still attempting to recover from all of the stars that were taken away.
“When NXT UK started, which was a huge thing at the time for British and European wrestling, I feel like it kind of took all the talent, and it starved all the indies,” Balor said. “And it took a long time for them to rebuild.
“For a lot of them, it hasn’t even happened yet. Because there’s no one to learn from or look up to. The guys like Tyler [Bate] and Pete [Dunne] and everyone else who came to WWE, now the younger kids don’t have anyone to learn from. I feel like there was probably a huge negative effect on the gulf of talent that WWE took out of that, I guess, territory, you know? But slowly it’s starting to rebuild.”
Rhodes added that he thinks a similar dynamic has played out in the United States.
“We’ve seen that domestically in the States with everything that’s popped up with other places to wrestle and things of that nature, it strips away,” Rhodes said. “And then there’s a negative byproduct to it, but then the positive byproduct is these 18, 19 year olds, all of a sudden they’re 22, they’ve grown, and they’ve had to do it very much on their own and they’ve got a set of skills. So it always kind of, I hope, refreshes itself and replenishes. Otherwise we have nowhere to look, you know, when we need it the most.”
NXT UK existed as a weekly series from 2018-2022. After its closure, there were plans for WWE to replace it with an NXT Europe brand — but that has not happened to this point. NXT UK was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including an Ireland TakeOver special being canceled in 2020 that would have seen Balor face off against Gunther in the main event.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.