Now is the perfect time for WWE to bring back Finn Balor’s Demon

The Post's Joseph Staszewski explores the world of professional wrestling in his weekly column, “Post Match Angle.''

Finn Balor needs a reboot, and there's no better time than now.

The Irishman is arguably the best wrestler in the world and joined WWE via NXT in 2014 as one of the hottest free agents in the industry after a stint in New Japan. The Bullet Club founder had a great run in NXT, and his TakeOver match as The Demon was one to watch. He then won his first Universal Championship, but had to vacate the title the next day due to a shoulder injury.

Since then, Balor has had a solid run in WWE, including being a five-time Tag Team Champion, two-time Intercontinental Champion, and one-time United States Champion. But it never felt like he had a truly solid creative direction until he joined The Judgment Day.

The company only used Demon sparsely on the main roster and never gave him the weight he received in NXT.

Demon is 6-0 in NXT and 7-2 on the main roster, with two of those losses coming in his last two matches in the body paint.

The Demon lost to Roman Reigns, who infamously magically destroyed the turnbuckle, at Extreme Rules in 2021, and then to Edge at WrestleMania 39. Before that, it was used twice in 2019.

Now is the time to bring Balor back and put him in position to utilize him properly, and for good reason.

Monday's street fight loss to Damian Priest felt like the end of a months-long feud between the two men. Baylor continues to secretly attack Liv Morgan and has seen nothing but failure since telling the group to follow his lead, leaving Baylor's character despondent and his position on Judgment Day in jeopardy. It should be.

His rock bottom should lead him to rediscover his inner demons and give him a real push for the World Heavyweight Championship. Who better to take down someone like Gunter than Damon?

The creative infrastructure is in place to make Return of the Demons a meaningful event, with Triple H and especially character development director Rob Fee following his work with Bray Wyatt and Wyatt Sixx.

Yes, the top of WWE's card is very crowded at the moment, so Balor getting back there won't happen overnight. But it's time to put all the tools back in Baylor's toolbox and give him a chance to get back on the road.

ten count

Kevin Was Right This Week: Kevin Owens isn't wrong when he says Cody Rhodes would have been better off letting Bloodline take matters into their own hands and beat them. He forgives The Rock, Roman Reigns becomes Tribal Chief once again, Reigns comes in for Rhodes' title, and the champion still fights Solo Chicor's Bloodline every week. Leave it to Owens to make Locke being nice to Rose fit into the story.

It makes a lot of sense for the powerhouse Hobbs to win the gauntlet match and become the next challenger to Jon Moxley's AEW World Championship. Defeating Hobbs only makes Moxley feel more dangerous, and Hobbs feels like a perfect fit for Rated FTR as Team AEW begins to unite against the Death Riders.

Naomi needed some kind of big moment after being pinned by Bayley, but then Bianca Belair accidentally braid-whipped her in a match for the No. 1 Contenders for the WWE Women's Championship and ended up losing. I opened the door. Her friends are betraying her. After all, enough has to be enough.

AEW has given me two things I didn't expect. Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay seem to have found common ground against Don Callis. They've never teamed up before, so it should be fun when it finally happens. It also came as a surprise that MJF started a program with Jeff Jarrett, but the former AEW World Champion's in-ring style should mesh well with “The Last Outlaw.”

While there was definitely a part of me rooting for Dakota Kai due to the injuries she had to overcome, Lyla Valkyria has the potential to become WWE's mainstay first female Intercontinental. There is a chance to become a champion. Will Becky Lynch return to reignite the storyline and further solidify her status as champion?

Approaching NXT felt like Roxanne Perez's farewell to the brand and the beginning of a main roster program with Bayley serving as a role model in her WWE Women's Championship match against Tiffany Stratton. That would allow Bayley to eliminate Perez from the Royal Rumble.

It's a credit to the NXT Tag Team Champions that WWE sent DIY to face Axiom and Nathan Frazier. They look like big fish in a small pond now, and Frasier posted a cool old photo of himself in a DIY shirt to X.

Harley Cameron winning her first AEW match should feel like a big deal, and the crowd reaction she got after shoving Mariah May at Collision felt like a good start. A Grand Slam in her home country of Australia feels like the right place. To further increase the audience's sympathy for her, I would end Wednesday's gauntlet match before she enters the ring as the final participant.

Vince McMahon settling his lawsuit with the SEC is a small victory for the former WWE boss, but it's far from what he thought in his statement. To clarify the situation, X added a blurb to the post: “Reader adds context.” His legal problems are not over yet. He still faces a civil trial for sexual assault and sex trafficking with his accuser, Janelle Grant, and is being investigated by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York over the accusations in the civil suit.

MLW has a very solid match concept called Gravity Gamble. Multiple briefcases allow you to intervene with different weapons during a match, adding several layers to the storytelling.

Wrestler of the week

Matt Riddle, MLW

Riddle returned to MLW in 2018 after failing to win the World Heavyweight Championship in his first go-around and being fired from WWE in order to give the promotion a run for its money. He accomplished that mission by pinning Satoshi Kojima at Kings of Coliseum on Sunday. Riddle will become the standard bearer for MLW.

This week's social media posts