Brian Fritz has a new interview up with NXT Champion Finn Balor, here are some excerpts from the interview:
On returning to Japan for “Beast in the East” and winning the NXT Title:
“It was kind of like the meeting of two chapters in my life. It was a place that became a second home for me. I had a lot of friends, a lot of incredible memories there that I kind of stepped away from and left behind and I was never sure if I was going to return. To return a year later to challenge for the NXT Championship was very kind of a surreal experience. It was almost like the storyline couldn’t have been any better with the location. It was the same building (Sumo Hall) that I had my last match for New Japan. To return there with WWE to wrestle Kevin Owens who is someone who came into NXT at the same time as me. We kind of experienced a lot of the same difficulties of battling with a new style. We kind of went through that struggle together. And to be in a championship match with someone who has become a very close friend of mine, it couldn’t have been any better. It’s a night that I’ll never ever forget for the rest of my life. It’s definitely a milestone night in my career for more than just the fact that I won the NXT Championship but for many personal reasons too.”
On his connection with the fans in both New Japan and now in NXT:
“It’s really humbling. And I always go back to this one point. It was first appearance for NXT at Full Sail when I came out to help Hideo (Itami). You kind of forget how big the reach that pro wrestling has around the world. I guess I got stuck in my own little bubble in Japan thinking that what I was doing in Japan was only available to the New Japan fans. But when I first walked out on NXT and they flashed Prince Devitt and the reaction that it got. And then I came to the ring at Full Sail University, the crowd was just on fire. From there, it’s just kind of snowballed around the WWE Universe. It’s very humbling that my work — my previous work — has had. Just the extent of the reach that the WWE Universe has around the world is incredible. I just got back from Australia and there were Finn Balor shirts and kids painted as Finn Balor and down in Australia where I’ve never wrestled before. It’s really a very humbling experience.”