As expected, Finn Balor made his return on Friday’s episode of SmackDown on FOX.
The former Universal Champion did so when he interrupted Sami Zayn on the show that was held from Houston, Texas. Zayn was in the ring talking about conspiracy theories and he tried to get the fans to rally behind him. Zayn tried to attack him but Balor countered and hit the coup de grace.
Balor returned to NXT in October 2019. This came after he asked for time off after he lost to Bray Wyatt at the SummerSlam pay-per-view event. WWE never intended for Balor to continue his feud with Wyatt. Instead, Balor was supposed to be moved from Raw to SmackDown once he returned after taking time off.
However, plans changed when NXT moved from the WWE Network to the USA Network in September 2019. After getting beat in the ratings when they went head-to-head with AEW Dynamite on TNT in the same time slot, WWE decided to move him to NXT with the idea that his star power could make more of a difference there.
Balor won the NXT Title for a second time in September 2020 by beating Adam Cole for the vacant title. Balor lost the NXT Championship to Karrion Kross at TakeOver: Stand & Deliver in April and then lost the rematch a few weeks later.
