‘I Don’t Want to Be Here’ – WWE Star Reveals Early Concerns Over NXT Career

WWE

A WWE star has revealed their early concerns over their NXT career and the behind-the-scenes name who convinced them otherwise.

Signed to a WWE contract in 2014, Finn Balor was already in his thirties when he joined the company, having enjoyed a successful career in NJPW.

Assigned to NXT initially, Balor would reflect on his struggles in the WWE Performance Center during a conversation on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, with the former Universal Champion admitting that he questioned why he was in developmental during his early months, that was until Terry Taylor convinced him it was the right move for his career.

Balor said:

“In my 20s, I thought if I make it to 30, it’ll be awesome as a wrestler, and in life, I guess (laughs). Then in my 30s, I thought, well 40, that’ll be really incredible.

“Right now, I feel better now than I did in my early 30s, and going back to what I was saying earlier about signing with NXT, a lot of people were of the opinion of, hey, he’s an experienced guy, knows exactly what he’s doing in the ring, why is he in NXT? He’s wasting his time in NXT. You hear this so much, and I started to maybe believe it as well, and also, why am I in this Performance Center doing roll after roll and leap frog after drop down, drop down, and run these drills?

“I just wrestled (Kota) Ibushi in front of 42,000 people at the Tokyo Dome like four weeks ago (at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8), and now I’m in the Performance Center in a factory doing drills with kids who’ve never wrestled.

“This was going on for about three months to the point where I think I showed up one Monday morning at 8 am for practice, and Terry Taylor was my coach, who I cannot speak more highly about, he’s absolutely incredible. I said, ‘Terry, I don’t want to be here. I feel like I’m just wasting my career. I’m 34, I need to be wrestling.’

“He said, ‘Finn, I’m teaching you a style that you can perform for another 10 years. If you continue wrestling the way you’ve been wrestling in New Japan, you’ll last about two more years, and I want you to last longer than that.’ So he was very instrumental in kind of helping me tweak my style to be more economical with my movements, with my moves, and really to go from being a good wrestler to being a star, and that’s the person who I credit with that, and he taught me so much. I cannot speak more highly about Terry Taylor.”

When it comes to his in-ring future, Balor noted that he doesn’t want to outstay his welcome, saying:

“Now it’s just get to having fun and make sure that I don’t want to overstay my welcome. I still feel pretty good. I don’t feel like I’ve slowed down too much. Well, I don’t know, because I don’t watch my matches back, because I cringe so much.”

Prior to signing with WWE, Balor would also reveal that he was trying to sign a long-term contract with NJPW, expecting to be there for life.

Property Of The WWE Performance Center

Many stars with careers built before WWE have made their way through the Performance Center, developing their skills alongside, as Balor describes it, “kids who’ve never wrestled.”

Being placed in that position as a star with past experience may seem to be something that it perhaps is not, with WWE no doubt wanting to develop talent at all levels to work to a specific standard that goes far beyond what they have done on the independent scene or in any other televised company.

Having to “suck eggs” is an uncomfortable experience for all involved. No doubt, many reading this have experienced the first day on a job thinking “I can do this”, only to discover that the company works in its own way that, while it may seem odd, makes sense when it’s all laid out.

Taylor explaining that he wants to train Balor for the long term is just an example of this, with the star able to tap into the decades of experience that not only the coach has, but that the WWE has developed as a pioneer in the field. Regardless of how talented a star is, how physically fit they are or how accomplished, there’s always more to learn and accepting that, wherever it materializes in life, is a major step in the right direction.

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• nxt
• wwe
• performance center
• Finn Balor
• Terry Taylor

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