Finn Balor is fully back, and he has the stitches to prove it. Balor defeated JD McDonagh in a singles match on the Raw after WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, but the victory came at a physical cost. During the bout, Balor’s lip was busted open, leaving him bloodied throughout the match. He shared an Instagram post featuring images from the night, including a close-up of the nasty lip trauma that required stitches to close.
His caption made the moment’s significance clear. “We are so back,” Balor wrote, a reference to the return of the classic version of the performer that WWE fans have been waiting to see again.
The post also showed Balor back in his signature wrestling gear and sporting his trimmed beard look, a visual confirmation that the reinvention era is over and the Finn Balor that made his name is front and center again. The comeback has been building over the past week, with The Demon making its return at WrestleMania 42 for the first time in three years to defeat Dominik Mysterio in a Street Fight match on night two.
Balor’s road back to this point has been a complicated one. He was kicked out of The Judgment Day in March following a series of internal tensions that had been building for some time. The group’s frustration centered on his inability to capture the World Championship and his refusal to help Mysterio retain the Intercontinental Championship against Penta on the March 2 episode of Raw. McDonagh, who was once a student at Balor’s wrestling school in Ireland, also turned his back on his former mentor, setting up their Raw collision.
The night did not end cleanly despite the victory. After Balor defeated McDonagh, Dominik Mysterio attacked him from behind, making clear that their rivalry is far from finished following their WrestleMania 42 Street Fight.
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