Finn Balor says he is questioning whether continuing to wrestle in the United States, away from his family in Ireland, is still worth it after a 13-year run with WWE.
The admission came on the latest episode of What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon, Balor walked Stephanie through how the calculation has changed for him since he became the inaugural WWE Universal Champion in 2016 and reached the financial stability that came with it.
Balor said that early in his career, he was willing to be away from family because he had a target to chase. That target has long since been hit.
“Earlier in my career, when you’re chasing the dream, and you’re trying to be successful, and you’re trying to make money to get yourself comfortable, like I’m sacrificing time with my family to follow my dream and achieve these targets that I’ve set myself. And when I’ve kind of, I’ve achieved more than I could ever have imagined in this business, and I’ve reached all these targets and goals that I’ve ever imagined, really, once I won the Universal title, that one time.”
He framed the Universal title win, which he held for less than 24 hours before forfeiting it due to a shoulder injury suffered in the match, as the peak.
“For me, that was the top of the mountain. I know a lot of people say, oh, what if he didn’t get hurt, whatever, but that’s the highest you can get.”
Once he was at the top and financially comfortable, he said, the underlying question changed.
“That’s where I started to question, like, why am I doing this now? Because I’m away from all the people that I love, like my family are at home in Ireland. I’m here in America wrestling. Before, it was a trade-off of you’re not with your family, but you’re following your dream. Now, I’m not with my family, but I have my dream, and I have, like, I don’t need anything else here. I don’t need any more money, I don’t need any more success. I don’t need any more attention. So why am I doing it?”
Stephanie pressed him on whether he was driven to keep doing it. Balor said he was driven to perform, not to be away.
“No, I’m driven to be in the ring and perform at the highest level every time I get in there. And I want to be in there. But I still don’t know, is that worth not being with family?”
Balor lives in Orlando with his wife Vero Rodriguez, a Telemundo Deportes lead anchor who grew up in Mexico City. Her family lives in Mexico. His lives in Ireland. He framed the geography problem directly.
“I’m with my wife in the United States, and it’s the two of us. She lives in, her family live in Mexico City. My family live in Ireland. So we’re kind of here, we’ve got our own little island, which is beautiful, and we’ve a great relationship, but there’s certainly an aspect of like loneliness, like where we don’t have a support system. And that’s always the kind of the thing that I question, like, should I be doing this job?”
He said the daily comparison to colleagues whose families live nearby has worn on him over the years.
“I don’t get, I want to say jealous, but I’m so envious of the guys who have their families here in the United States, and they just like, fly home on Tuesday morning after Raw, they fly home and they’re with their kids and with their mom, and they can go see their dad or whatever. Like for me and Vero, we just come home from work, but our families are still far away.”
When Stephanie asked what the solve would be, Balor said the long-term plan after wrestling is to split his year between three continents.
“Well, the solve would be, like, 50-50, like once I’m done wrestling, maybe do like a couple months in US, couple months in Mexico, a couple months in Ireland. That would be the dream.”
He was clear he wasn’t trying to make the conversation sound bleaker than it is.
“I don’t want this to come across like super depressing and sad, because I love my job.”
But he also said the guilt has been getting stronger.
“I’ve had that guilt for a long time. The guilt has been getting more prominent the longer my career has gone.”
Balor told Stephanie he still wants the biggest WWE shows.
“I want to perform at the top. I want to be on the biggest shows. I want to be on WrestleMania. I want to be on SummerSlam. I want to be on Raw. But deep down, I struggle daily with what I’m giving up for that.”
If you use quotes from this article, please credit What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
