Finn Bálor

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Fergal Devitt IrelandIreland
Bálor in February 2019.

Bálor in February 2019.
Data
Surname Fergal Devitt
Ring name Fergal Devitt
Finn Bálor
Pegasus Kid
Prince Devitt
Additions to names The Demon
Irish Young Gun
Irish Captor
height 180 cm
Fighting weight 87 kg
birth July 25, 1981
Bray , County Wicklow , Ireland
Announced from Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland
Trained by Andre Baker
New Japan Dojo
Jon Ryan
debut 2000

Fergal Devitt (born July 25, 1981 in Bray , County Wicklow ), better known by his ring name Finn Bálor , is an Irish wrestler who is currently under contract with WWE . He currently appears regularly on their show NXT . His greatest achievement so far is receiving the Universal Championship .

Wrestling career

Independent Leagues (2000-2014)

Devitt was trained by Andre Baker. Devitt began in the United Kingdom with various independent promotions (e.g. NWA UK Hammerlock , NWA Ireland , Irish Whip Wrestling or Independent Wrestling Federation ). On October 27, 2004 , he won his first title, the NWA British Commonwealth Championship .

In 2003 Devitt played his first match in the USA . From 2005 he appeared more regularly in the USA, mainly in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

In August 2012 he appeared for the first time in Germany for Westside Xtreme Wrestling as part of the Fans Appreciation Weekend in the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen . Further appearances at the league in Hamburg and at the 12th anniversary in Oberhausen followed.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (2006-2014)

In April 2006 Devitt signed a contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). There he trained in the New Japan Dojo (in the wrestling school of NJPW).

Devitt as the leader of the Bullet Club in September 2013.

On April 16, 2006, he made his debut as Prince Devitt and joined the Stable Control Terrorism Unit (CTU) in the same year . In 2007 he left CTU and joined the stable RISE (consisting of Shinsuke Nakamura , Hirooki Goto, Minoru, Milano Collection AT , Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko). Together with Minoru , Devitt won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on January 27, 2008 . They passed the title on to AKIRA and Jushin Thunder Liger on February 17th . On July 21, Devitt and Minoru regained the title. This time they gave the title to Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro. With RISE Devitt feuded against the stable Great Bash Heel .

From June 2009 Devitt formed the Apollo 55 tag team with Ryusuke Taguchi . Together they won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from The Motor City Machine Guns ( Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin ) on July 5, 2009 . They gave the title on May 8, 2010 to El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship won Devitt and Taguchi until 2011 two more times. On June 19, 2010 , Devitt won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Naomichi Marufuji . He gave the title to Kota Ibushi on June 18, 2011 after 364 days. On September 19, 2011 he won the title again when he defeated KUSHIDA for the vacant title, which had to be fought again by Ibushi due to a knee injury. Devitt held the title until May 3, 2012, when he had to hand it over to Low-Ki . After an interim reign of Kota Ibushi, Devitt won the title for the third time on November 11, 2012, but lost it to Ibushi on January 4, 2014 in Tokyo after more than 400 days of reign at Wrestle Kingdom 8 .

World Wrestling Entertainment (since 2014)

NXT Champion (2014-2016)

NXT Champion Bálor in 2015.

On July 28, 2014, WWE announced that it had signed a 3-year contract with Devitt and that he would initially appear in the WWE Farm League NXT . There he received the new ring name Finn Bálor . He made his NXT debut while supporting Hideo Itami in his feud against The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor). On July 4, 2015, Devitt won the NXT Championship from Kevin Owens , at a WWE Live event in Tokyo, Japan . On October 7, 2015 at NXT TakeOver: Respect , he and Samoa Joe won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament . On April 21, 2016 Balor lost at a house show his NXT Champion -Titel to Samoa Joe. His last appearance on NXT was on July 13, 2016, when he lost to Shinsuke Nakamura .

First Universal Champion and Injury (2016-2017)

At the WWE Draft 2016 , which took place on July 19, 2016 at SmackDown , he was drafted to Raw . On July 25, 2016, Finn Bálor officially debuted on Monday Night Raw . In a qualifying match for the position as a challenger to the newly created WWE Universal Championship , he first won a fatal four-way match against Kevin Owens, Rusev and Cesaro , where he pinned Rusev. Later that evening he was able to win another match against Roman Reigns , who had previously also won a fatal four-way match against Chris Jericho , Sami Zayn and Sheamus . This made Bálor officially one of the two challengers to the WWE Universal Championship . At Summerslam he met Seth Rollins , against whom he could win the title match. This made him the very first WWE Universal Champion . However, he had to give up the title one day later due to an injury to his shoulder.

Return and Intercontinental Champion (2017-2019)

In the following years he could not win any other titles, but was in various feud programs. On January 12, 2019, he surprisingly appeared at the major event NXT UK: TakeOver Blackpool . Here he defeated his Irish compatriot Jordan Devlin as a substitute for the injured Travis Banks. At the Royal Rumble on January 27, 2019, Bálor played a match against Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship , but could not win it. At the following major event Elimination Chamber on February 17, 2019, however, he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the first time with a win in a 2-1 handicap match over Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush . In this match, Bálor pinned Lio Rush, but not reigning champion Lashley. Due to the specific match regulations, the title changed anyway. A month later, on the March 11, 2019 RAW broadcast, he lost the title again to Bobby Lashley after Lio Rush caused a distraction outside the ring. At WrestleMania 35 , on April 7, 2019, he was able to secure the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the second time with a win over Lashley with the help of his Demon gimmick .

As part of the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up , Bálor switched from Raw to SmackDown as Intercontinental Champion on April 16, 2019 . The title therefore also changed to this show. He participated in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match on May 19, 2019, but did not win the match. On June 7, 2019, he again defended his title against Andrade on WWE Super ShowDown. The reign ended on July 14, 2019 at Extreme Rules after losing to Shinsuke Nakamura , that reign lasted 98 days. On August 11, 2019, he lost a singles match against Bray Wyatt at WWE SummerSlam .

Return to NXT and Heel-Turn (since 2019)

After an almost two-month absence, Bálor returned to the October 2nd edition of NXT and faced NXT Champion Adam Cole . On November 23, 2019, he played a singles match against Matt Riddle on NXT TakeOver: WarGames III , which he won.

Titles and awards

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Devitt in 2011.
  • American Wrestling Roadshow
    • Wrestling.Ie Championship (1 ×)
  • Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
    • NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship (1 ×)
  • Insane Championship Wrestling
    • ICW Zero-G Championship (1 ×)
  • NWA UK Hammerlock
    • NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship (2 ×)
  • Revolution Pro Wrestling
    • British Cruiserweight Championship (1 ×)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Clapp: WWE signs Fergal Devitt to NXT . In: WWE . July 28, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  2. ^ Karl McDonald: Fergal Devitt signs with WWE . In: The Independent , July 29, 2014. Retrieved August 14, 2014. 
  3. ↑ Mike Johnson: Prince Devitt's WWE name is ... . In: Pro Wrestling Insider . September 24, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ WWE SmackDown Live # 882 (WWE Draft 2016) Results & Report from Worcester, Massachusetts from July 19, 2016 (including videos) ( Memento of the original from July 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. wrestling-infos.de. Retrieved July 26, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www4.wrestling-infos.de
  5. ↑ WWE Monday Night Raw # 1209 Results + Report from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from July 25, 2016 (incl. Videos) ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. wrestling-infos.de. Retrieved July 26, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www4.wrestling-infos.de
  6. ↑ Finn Balor injured: title vacant! rautemusik.fm.Retrieved August 29, 2016
  7. ↑ Paul Davis: WATCH: Finn Balor wrestled at NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool. In: Wrestling News. January 12, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019 (American English).
  8. ↑ Paul Davis: WWE Royal Rumble: Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor - Universal Championship. In: Wrestling News. January 28, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019 (American English).
  9. ↑ Sport1.de: WWE RAW: The Shield breaks up, Kurt Angle, Batista before parting. Retrieved March 13, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Finn Bálor  - collection of images
personal data
SURNAME Bálor, Finn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devitt, Prince; Devitt, Fergal (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Bray , County Wicklow , Ireland