00:00It's been 2 years since Finn Balor joined The Judgment Day.
00:09On June 6th, 2022, the direction of the group completely changed when Finn Balor joined
00:15only for him, Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest to turn on Edge.
00:19And just like that, they went from being a supernatural kind of group to what we know
00:24them as today.
00:26It seemed like a crazy idea to kick Edge out that quickly, but the decision was a great
00:31one.
00:32It turned The Judgment Day into the number 2 faction in this awesome era of WWE only
00:37behind the Bloodline.
00:39The lineup of Damian Priest, Rhea Ripley, Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio was perfect
00:44and JD McDonough plays the role of the much needed fall guy.
00:48But what's the biggest issue with The Judgment Day?
00:51We would argue that it hasn't benefited Finn Balor as much as it should have.
00:56We'd even go as far as to say that he's benefited the least out of everyone in The
01:00Judgment Day.
01:02Think about this, Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley pivoted into main event stardom, Dominik Mysterio
01:08became the most hated villain in WWE, and even JD McDonough benefits in the sense that
01:14he gets regular TV time, something he wouldn't get if he wasn't in The Judgment Day.
01:19While Finn Balor may have had two reigns as one half of the undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions,
01:26he should probably be in a bigger and better role by now.
01:29We can point out two exact moments that negatively affected him, being on the losing end of rivalries
01:35against Edge and Seth Rollins.
01:38But apart from just that, WWE may have made a mistake by not giving him some sort of leadership
01:44role in the early stages of The Judgment Day.
01:46We get that The Judgment Day always explicitly stated that they had no leader, but in time
01:52The dynamic eventually plays out in a way that organically reveals who the leaders are.
01:57That role seems to have fallen to Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley, with Rhea's success in particular
02:02making her the biggest star of the group.
02:04In her absence, Damian Priest appears to have taken the de facto leadership role.
02:09By peer numbers alone, Finn Balor is the most experienced star in The Judgment Day.
02:14Sure, he might only have 4 years of experience on Damian Priest, but in 2022, nobody in the
02:21Reform Judgment Day lineup had as much experience on the big stage as Balor did.
02:26Maybe Finn Balor just doesn't have the same kind of presence to impose that type of leadership,
02:31but it would have been worth trying.
02:33Instead, he's been the number 3 guy in the group and has remained that way the entire
02:39time.
02:40Getting to the two previously mentioned rivalries, the one against Edge hurt Finn Balor a lot.
02:46To remind those who have forgotten or didn't watch Raw during that time, Edge getting kicked
02:51out of the Judgment Day led to a long feud against Finn Balor.
02:55Finn Balor beat him at Extreme Rules 2022 by forcing him to say I quit, and then teamed
03:00up with Rhea Ripley to lose against Edge and Beth Phoenix at Elimination Chamber a few
03:05months later.
03:06In the match to end it all, Edge faced Finn Balor in his demon form in a Hell in a Cell
03:11match at Wrestlemania.
03:14Considering that Edge was an already established legend who had nothing to lose even with a
03:18defeat, everybody thought that this would be one of Balor's defining Wrestlemania
03:22moments.
03:23Instead, Edge beat him to win the rivalry.
03:27The decision felt completely counterproductive, especially when you remember that Edge and
03:31Beth Phoenix already got their revenge from the Extreme Rules incident.
03:35Finn Balor had way more to gain by winning that match, but for some reason, it just didn't
03:42happen.
03:43It was kind of an unfortunate ongoing trend where Edge, aka Adam Copeland, always gets
03:47the last laugh in his rivalries unless your name is Roman Reigns.
03:52The decision seems even crazier when you remember that Edge left WWE just 5 months later.
04:02With his World Heavyweight Championship feud against Seth Rollins, it's kind of a different
04:06story.
04:07The entire premise of that rivalry was that Finn Balor had his Universal Championship win
04:12at Summerslam 2016 taken away from him because Seth Rollins had injured him.
04:18It led to a couple of matches at Money in the Bank and Summerslam 2023 where Finn Balor
04:23looked to have his full circle moment, his 7 year itch to get revenge against Seth Rollins.
04:29It would have been great to see him defeat Seth Rollins to have that moment, but in hindsight,
04:34him losing was the right decision.
04:36Had he won the World Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam, it wouldn't have had the
04:41same ramifications that Seth Rollins' world title run had.
04:45We most likely would have seen a short-term story with The Judgment Day being forced to
04:49split or Balor getting prematurely kicked out.
04:52We're still in a fairly new era in WWE, but it seems obvious that the memo is to focus
04:57on long-term, well-paced storytelling rather than just rushing it.
05:02But now that nearly a year has passed since then and Balor has just touched 2 years with
05:08The Judgment Day, it seems like it's the right time and place for him to make that
05:12exit.
05:13The story writes itself.
05:15The Judgment Day is in complete chaos right now, despite Damian Priest holding Raw's
05:20top title.
05:21Rhea Ripley's absence has left a bit of a vacuum, allowing Liv Morgan to seemingly
05:26inject herself in for reasons unknown as of now.
05:30Dominik Mysterio is injured and JD McDonough is, well, JD McDonough.
05:36A lot of people have forgotten that in the second half of last year, Damian Priest and
05:40Finn Balor were having some issues that threatened to tear The Judgment Day apart.
05:45They managed to put aside their differences towards a common goal in the tag team championships,
05:50but the circumstances are different now.
05:53This time, Finn Balor needs to finally put his foot down and assert his position as the
05:58one who needs to lead The Judgment Day.
06:01To add some legitimacy to his claim, WWE needs to have Finn Balor go on a quiet winning streak
06:07that speaks for itself.
06:09He should be the one keeping The Judgment Day relevant, whether Damian Priest is still
06:12the World Heavyweight Champion or not.
06:15Obviously, the story would have to culminate in him either deciding to leave The Judgment
06:19Day or him getting kicked out.
06:22We'd go for the first option to give him a better launching pad to be a great single
06:26star again.
06:28If Finn Balor is still great in his role with The Judgment Day, don't get us wrong, but
06:32it still feels like he has a lot left to achieve in his already grand slam champion career
06:37and it's unlikely that he can achieve it while still being with The Judgment Day.
06:41On the flip side, he could simply be happy in his role while getting paid really well
06:46and enjoying time on the road with his friends.
06:49Either way, it's a win-win for him.
06:52Thanks for watching and let us know what you think in the comments below.
06:57Could Finn Balor leave The Judgment Day?
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