Finn Balor Doesn’t Buy The “Full Circle” Narrative for SummerSlam 2023, Gives an Update on The Demon (Exclusive)

Finn Balor will challenge Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam tonight.

Finn Balor and Seth Rollins first clashed in a WWE ring at the 2016 SummerSlam event, battling it out to become the first WWE Universal Champion. Balor was victorious, but he suffered a surgery-requiring shoulder injury in the process and had to relinquish the gold the following night. Balor has recently set his sights on Rollins’ World Heavyweight Championship, looking to avenge that injury and finally get back to world champion status for the first time in seven years. The two will wrestle yet again at SummerSlam tonight at Detroit’s Ford Field, but Balor doesn’t feel like the match will be any kind of “full circle” moment for his career. 

“I feel like the media are turning this into a very full circle moment for myself and Seth,” Balor said in an interview with ComicBook at a media junket on Friday. “But really, for me, I’m just treating this as another day at the office and I’ve been doing this for a long time. I approach every match in the same, the same way with the same amount of attention and focus and that will be the same thing going at SummerSlam tomorrow.”

@comicbookwrestling

#FinnBalor isn’t concerned with course-correcting history at SummerSlam… #wwe #wwetok #wwetiktok #fyp #wrestlingtok #wrestlingtiktok #wrestletok

♬ Tyler Herro (Instrumental) – Diamond Audio

In a recent appearance on After The Bell, Balor discussed his bodypaint alter-ego “The Demon” and how he felt it was trying to “please too many people” within WWE. His last two appearances as The Demon resulted in defeat as he failed to beat Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at Extreme Rules 2021 (ending in an infamous sequence where he lost because the top turnbuckle inexplicably broke just as he was about to deliver his finisher) and lost to Edge inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania 39.

“I feel like that statement (about pleasing people) doesn’t just apply to The Demon, that applies to Finn as well,” Balor said in his interview with ComicBook. “I’ve been guilty of trying to please too many people all of the time and not please myself. And I kind of abandoned that kind of method. I’m more focused now on pleasing myself. So that, I find, is where you find your truest self and that’s what we have right now. But with regards to demons, it’s an ever-evolving process and we’ll see where it goes in the future, but not anytime soon”

SummerSlam kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. ET on the Peacock network. Stay tuned for full coverage of the show!