Finn Balor has revealed three of the ring-name options WWE pitched him when he joined NXT in 2014, including one that ended up going to another wrestler on the roster and one that was killed because Paul “Triple H” Levesque thought it sounded too much like RuPaul.
Balor laid out the list on What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon, where Stephanie reminded him she had given him a printout of suggested names the first time they met at the Performance Center. Balor said he ultimately picked Finn Balor himself, anchoring the name in Gaelic mythology.
“The name Finn Balor is based in mythology because Balor is the one-eyed Demon King from Gaelic folklore, and Finn McCool is, it’s kind of like, it’s very similar to David versus Goliath, where Finn McCool is the David in this story, and he slays the one-eyed demon. So I put the two together.”
The list of names he was given included several he turned down. One was Liv.
“I’ve never said this to anyone else. One of those names, and Paul was especially leaning towards this name, was Liv.”
Liv Morgan, of course, debuted on the WWE main roster in 2017 under that name and is a current WWE Women’s World Champion. Stephanie’s reaction was that Paul liking the name made sense given his track record. Balor agreed.
A second name was Rux.
“Rux was on there. But then Paul said, no, no, no. People think of RuPaul. I remember him specifically saying that.”
Balor said he genuinely did not know who RuPaul was at the time, which Stephanie filled in. Rux was dropped from the running.
A third name was McGregor. This was 2014, before Conor McGregor became the global star he is now. McGregor had recently fought in Boston, where Balor was living, and torn ligaments in his knee in a win. Balor read the moment and pulled the name off his own list.
“And this was before Connor had really blown up. He’d had the fight in Boston, where he won, but he injured his knee. And just after that, I remember thinking, no, this guy’s going to be a mega star, and I don’t want to have the same name as.”
The Balor name choice itself wasn’t the only thing the company tried to talk him out of. Balor said when he first signed, the early read from WWE staff was that he was going to be turned into a comedy character around his Irish heritage.
“When I signed with WWE, everyone said, ah, you’re going to be the Irish leprechaun. You’re going to be Hornswoggle’s tag team partner. You know, they’re not going to, you’re going to be a cartoon. Like, you can forget about doing all those body paints. You can forget about all that stuff.”
The body paint came back into the picture once Balor finally got to talk directly to Paul Levesque, instead of through Performance Center middle managers in those early NXT weeks.
“I’m at the Performance Center. There’s no real answers. No one’s really in charge. So everyone’s going to say, maybe this, maybe that. So I’m just doing my training and keeping my head down. And then when I finally meet Paul and have the conversation, we’re talking back and forth, and Mr. Regal, talking about just like wrestling and Japan. And then Paul just kind of folds his arms, and he says, so tell me about this body paint. And I remember just going, ah, okay, maybe we can do it here.”
Stephanie also asked Balor about the first time they met, when she walked over with the printed list of names and put him on the spot. Balor confirmed that he didn’t know who was actually in charge during his earliest weeks at the Performance Center, which made the meeting with both Stephanie and Triple H land harder than it might have otherwise.
“It had been a couple of weeks being at the Performance Center, like, without yourself and Paul being there, and I was dealing with people that were employees of the Performance Center, and they were giving me their input, and I’m thinking, like, who is this guy? Like, he doesn’t really, I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me. I’ve been doing this 16 years.”
A separate funny moment from the early days came when Balor walked away from a conversation with Levesque and Regal with Levesque’s personal phone number.
“He said, oh yeah, just text me anytime. And he gives me his number. So I take out my phone and I put in the number. Then, like, as I walk away, I go back over to Sami, and Sami says, did you just get Triple H’s number? Whoa, bro. I’m so proud. It’s like, you know when you see your friend at the bar getting the number from a really hot girl, I’m like, I was so proud for you, bro.”
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.
