NXT Champion Finn Balor recently spoke with Sports Illustrated’s “Extra Mustard” blog to promote next Saturday’s NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event at the Barclays Center. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his verbal skills being the biggest knock from WWE coaches and Dusty Rhodes: “Dusty would say, ‘Finn, your work in the ring is up here, but you’re talking is down here – you’ve got to balance them out.’ He was always very straight to the point, and we had a great relationship together. I remember him saying one time, ‘Prince, you know I heard them talking about you before you came in here, and goddamn, I thought Lou Thesz was gonna walk in that door the way they talk about your work.’ I’ll never forget that, and I was very lucky to work with Dusty. He helped me incredibly with my communication, as he called it, and I learned a lot of lessons with him. ‘The Dream’ was someone who filled me with confidence the first time I walked in the door.”
On NXT being WWE’s best product right now: “Right now, NXT is the main roster. NXT is the hottest thing in wrestling. I’m not in any hurry to go anywhere else but take NXT to the next level.”
On possibly main eventing WrestleMania one day: “I started wrestling fifteen years ago, and my goal was to have just one match. I had one match, and then I wanted to have two. Then I wanted to wrestle in Japan, and I wrestled in Japan for eight years. Then I wanted to wrestle in WWE. Here I am, a year later, as NXT champ. So I don’t set long-term goals. The next goal is Brooklyn [against Kevin Owens at NXT Takeover]. But it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think, in another fifteen years time, the odds are highly stacked in my favor about WrestleMania some day.”
Check out the complete interview at SI.com.
