Finn "Prince Devitt" Bálor Thread (Raw Spoilers ahoy!)

Agent Coulson

Has Machine Gun ever got a WWE tryout or wanted to have one?

What are his chances now that Devitt & Bloom are there now?

rovert

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Has Machine Gun ever got a WWE tryout or wanted to have one?

What are his chances now that Devitt & Bloom are there now?

He has turned down WWE about three times apparently. He earns decent money in Japan and has earn higher and higher status within the company. He became the highest paid gaijin (foreign Wrestler) when Bloom left and is the liason for foreign talent and New Japan. Essentially he gets book the foreigners New Japan uses. The New Japan schedule is apparently better on his wife and children too. Three weeks on, five weeks off type thing some times the reverse of that but still better.

gimmick

Normally I am good at this, but who were the guys at the dinenr table with Devitt?

rovert

gimmick wrote: »

Normally I am good at this, but who were the guys at the dinenr table with Devitt?

Which one? The restaurant or kitchen?

The kitchen was Bad Luck Fale, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Have to rewatch but maybe Tama Tonga too? The cook was an old wrestler called Kengo Kimura.

At the restaurant Zack Sabre Jr was the English guy in the blue shirt and one of Devitt's oldest Wrestling friends Sean Maxer Brennan is the guy in the pony tail. At the time at least Sean was wrestling for Zero 1 in Japan.

Raven Runner

The chef int the house that Devitt gave a present to before leaving looked like he could have been a wrestler

hufpc8w3adnk65

Good show. Really enjoyed it. He seems very grounded

Ageyev

Have to echo all the other comments, it was a really good documentary, all the more surprising that we saw it on RTE on a prime time slot. Hope it widens his profile but a shame that the Network hasn't officially launched here etc.

One thing I loved was seeing the stuff backstage in Japan, particularly his final match with Taguchi.

The White Feather

Ages ago, I remember listening to a Colt Cabana podcast with a guy called Fergal Devitt. I didn't know who he was as I don't follow NJPW. this is only due to I don't have enough time to watch much else other than WWE. I havent missed a RAW since it came on Sky Sports or a PPV since we could get them here!!! With RAW now being 3 hours, I think they want to make sure you don't have time to watch anything else but thats just a theory! :pac:

So after I listened to the podcast and looked up his matches on youtube and I was blown away. I thought how on earth is he not with WWE yet? I was impressed with others too there btw.

Since then I kept tabs on his matches as its good to support our fellow Irishman especially when he is so talented.

A thing I was looking for in the doc is what kind of guy is he in the sense that they always say WWE is dog eat dog. I was happy to see him being the leader in every sense there.You could see he is highly respected but he has the aura even when they were all relaxing.This makes me think he will do very well in WWE asd he has that as well as everything else! Physique and charisma etc

I showed his NXT Takeover Revolution entrance to my wife who I have turned into a casual fan and is a good barometer of what catches a neutrals eye and she thought it was amazing too

Also, not sure if people saw this but i found it interesting.Apologies if covered already.It was from a HHH conference call

"The bigger thing for a lot of them is getting up to speed that we're a television show... a couple of months ago we were going through all this stuff with Finn Balor and working on entrances and camera spots.

"At the end of the day he looked a little frazzled. I said, 'Are you doing alright with all this?' He was like, 'Yeah, it's overwhelming sometimes... I've never had anybody ever talk to me about production of an entrance, or hitting music cues... I just walked to the ring and they did what they did and they shot it and that was the end of it'.

"We're trying to put on a platform in the biggest way possible. It's not easy to see when you're watching Raw or SmackDown, the things that we do and how we try to present the product, but it does create a big difference for the things you see and don't see.

"We're a TV show, and we want to get every little nuance and every moment and every facial reaction and all those things to make it as big as possible, and that's probably the biggest challenge."

From all accounts they say Devitt insured in negotiations that he wouldnt be in NXT too long so I guess we can say he is learning his music cues etc very well and quickly from what we saw on that show!

He has that star quality that is impossible to teach and the doc was great to see.Well done to the makers! Great exposure for him.

gimmick

rovert wrote: »

Which one? The restaurant or kitchen?

The kitchen was Bad Luck Fale, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Have to rewatch but maybe Tama Tonga too? The cook was an old wrestler called Kengo Kimura.

At the restaurant Zack Sabre Jr was the English guy in the blue shirt and one of Devitt's oldest Wrestling friends Sean Maxer Brennan is the guy in the pony tail. At the time at least Sean was wrestling for Zero 1 in Japan.

I was wondering was that Maxer alright. Never realised he had gone to Japan.

My original question was in relation to the kitchen.

Stereomaniac

The guy has everything. He has the look, the skills and he appears to have the ability on the mic. I'm sure other posters here would be better able to predict whether or not he'll be able to take the ball and run with it if he's given less than desireable creative to work with. In an era where we have had CM Punk & Daniel Bryan as WWE champions, I think he could be coming in at the right time. The big thing is if he gets the favour of Vince McMahon though I guess. But is it possible for a talent to make negotiations about how long they'll be on NXT? I mean, for sure, if WWE want a talent badly enough they are probably prepared to negotiate things like that, but I would be surprised if someone can make that kind of deal up-front and have it almost set in stone before they start. Aside from all of that though, he is exuding a supreme level of confidence whenever I see him work. Like The White Feather said as well, I have been showing pictures and videos of him at R Evolution to people as well, and they seem to be pretty impressed. Also, people did notice the advertisements for the documentary on RTÉ as well. Now whether they mentioned it to me because they know I am a wrestling guy, or because they were intrigued by what they saw, that's uncertain. But I'd say people will remember him from it now.

rovert

The White Feather wrote: »

A thing I was looking for in the doc is what kind of guy is he in the sense that they always say WWE is dog eat dog. I was happy to see him being the leader in every sense there.You could see he is highly respected but he has the aura even when they were all relaxing.This makes me think he will do very well in WWE asd he has that as well as everything else! Physique and charisma etc !

Devitt just seems to command respect out of well respect and professionalism. Owens twitted this yesterday:

https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/status/545370525787488256

The White Feather wrote: »

From all accounts they say Devitt insured in negotiations that he wouldnt be in NXT too long so I guess we can say he is learning his music cues etc very well and quickly from what we saw on that show!

At the TV tapings that came prior R Evolution which contained his in ring debut amongst other things the Undertaker actually helped Devitt in putting together his entrance. Once you know it you can't but help see the influence. Taker's finger prints can be seen in the way Balor takes his time and let's the crowd wait for him. I DIDN'T get it from anyone connected to Fergal. It was one of the Full Sail students/production staff. Balor picked his theme too.

gimmick wrote: »

I was wondering was that Maxer alright. Never realised he had gone to Japan.

Yup Jordan Devlin & Shawn Maxer for about two years they even won the Zero 1 tag belts as the Big Hangovers. There was a proper Irish Mafia in Japan for a bit. Them, Devitt and the Kasey & Leah Owens.

Ruu

The two boyos.

rovert

I'm a Sam Adams Guy

J. Marston

Sheamus needs to take a shears to that thing.

gimmick

First time I saw Devitt was in Trabolgan for IWW on a Wednesday afternoon in 2005/6. I knew he was NWA, so after the show we asked him what are you doing here. Simple response - "I need the money".

Rebecca Knox was there that day as well actually.

rovert

Yes

D-FENS

Presume the tag team with Hideo will be relatively short lived? All the attention seems to be on Balor, to the casual American fan who doesn't know much about either, there must be already a bit of a Jannetty factor.

Palo Alto

I assume they'll feud now Ascension are gone whilst Owens will fight Zayn for next couple of months.

rovert

D-FENS wrote: »

Presume the tag team with Hideo will be relatively short lived? All the attention seems to be on Balor, to the casual American fan who doesn't know much about either, there must be already a bit of a Jannetty factor.

The current set of NXT tapings may or not indicate that the Balor and Itami team was only a short alliance to dispatch of the Ascension. We will just have to wait what is said on commentary or in backstage in the next few weeks. It would seem to me that Balor will be going solo or EVEN heading to main roster.

There was a report on Wrestlezone last month saying that Balor and Itami were going to have a series of matches/feud with the Lucha Dragons.

mrkiscool2

Jesus, that picture of Sheamus and Balor was put on a facebook group and most of the comments are about how alcoholic we are. Jesus wept

leggo

mrkiscool2 wrote: »

Jesus, that picture of Sheamus and Balor was put on a facebook group and most of the comments are about how alcoholic we are. Jesus wept

Is that the group's fault, though? They are playing up the whole, "Waheeey we're Irish and having a pint!" deal.

mrkiscool2

leggo wrote: »

Is that the group's fault, though? They are playing up the whole, "Waheeey we're Irish and having a pint!" deal.

Meh, I don't think it's the whole "We're drinking cause we're Irish" thing though, and the way they are going on you'd swear we actually bathe in stout or something!

Shapey Fiend

The chat on Art of Wrestling this week seems to suggest that becoming buddies with HHH, Taker and everybody else you can find gives you a far better chance of getting on in the WWE than anything you do in the ring. Looks like he's on the right track in that respect. Colt Cabana seems to have a bit of a complex about networking that to an Irish person wouldn't be anything other than natural.

Lord TSC

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

The chat on Art of Wrestling this week seems to suggest that becoming buddies with HHH, Taker and everybody else you can find gives you a far better chance of getting on in the WWE than anything you do in the ring.

In other news, rain is wet and the sky is blue

leggo

As I always say, it's a job and you have to think of it in that respect. A person who's useless but great mates with the boss will get something but not the keys to the castle. A person who is great at their job is an asset to the boss and will be treated as such. And a person who is great AND sees the value of keeping the boss sweet will get ahead of both people. That's really all there is to wrestling politics in a nutshell.

From what I've heard from Colt before (and I've dealt with him numerous occasions and both like and respect the guy for the record) in interviews with SCSA and the likes, maybe he worries a bit much about being respected as an equal peer by more successful guys rather than sucking it up and acting like a student, so I'd imagine that is ultimately what led to his downfall there. Devitt can outwrestle almost anyone in WWE but will treat them all as equals or better, while not being a lick arse and treating himself seriously too, so that's where he differs. It's a personality thing, nothing more.

rovert

https://twitter.com/SashaBanksWWE/status/546097342974525440

Pentecost

I heart Sasha, as I've said a million times on here already

I do geuninely think though she can "do an AJ" as it were and be a big deal on the main roster when she steps up, well as much as allowed anyway. Really owns her character.

rovert

mrkiscool2

Does Fergal have an OH though? If not I imagine most of the Divas are creaming themselves over him...

I'm also drunk, don't judge me!

rovert

Will like a braver man answer the previous question.

What's origin of this photo. He still has body paint his neck seemingly: