Last week, internet reports began to circulate and then go viral that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon doesn’t think that former WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor is “over” enough (popular enough with the general audience in laymen terms) to warrant another World title shot in the near future. This immediately drew the ire of the internet wrestling community, who ironically shared the dirt sheet reports as gospel despite hating dirtsheets themselves. It was later reported that those reports were false and that Vince McMahon actually thinks so highly of Balor’s “Demon King” persona – that which he wears at his big Pay Per View matches – that McMahon only wants him in these high profile matches if he’s going to win – at least for now.
In response to the reports, Finn Balor decided to have a little fun at the rumors, with a series of Tweets that have gone on for days. And while many of the naysayers and WWE doomsayers are convinced it’s a worked shoot on Vince McMahon and WWE creative, it’s widely thought to be a poke at the internet fans themselves for believing such reports in the first place.
First, he changed his Twitter handle to Finn FOreVER, emphasizing the letters in “forever” to highlight the word “OVER”. From there, it continued to build.
🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/fn33H9Ua4b
— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) November 22, 2017
#BálorClub
•fOreVER• pic.twitter.com/OmS5hFsJOf— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) November 22, 2017
I AM NOT OVER
Cooking the turkey#HappyThanksgiving pic.twitter.com/lrajiyLIeg— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) November 23, 2017
.@WWERomanReigns 🐶
I won’t just ‘step up’
I’ll step OVER https://t.co/0BFAKPruk9— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) November 27, 2017
OVERwhelmed 😖
— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) November 28, 2017
Last night was tough…
But I will get OVER— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) November 28, 2017
Mike Killiam, Senior Editor of ProWrestling.com (formerly of WrestleZone.com), even postured the idea that perhaps the WWE planted the original reports in the first place (which would explain why normal WWE insider gatherers Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer and Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated got the news), in order to push the crowd even further into Balor’s corner.
https://twitter.com/MikeKillam/status/935562802181410816
In essence, while they tried to “organically” recreate Daniel Bryan’s push with Roman Reigns (and failed), this time they’ve used Social Media and dirt sheets against the fans in orders to rally the pro-Balor fans into rallying for him online. There’s a solid argument for that case – just looked at who’s leading the latest WWE Poll asking who fans want to face Brock Lesnar next for the WWE Universal title. And it’s not even close.
Regardless whether the reports are true (or which set of reports are true), Finn Balor seems to be having some fun at somebody’s expense and most of us are having a good laugh.
