Finn Bálor
Fergal Devitt (born 25 July 1981) is an Irish professional wrestler[4] currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Finn Bálor. Bálor was the inaugural WWE Universal Champion. He is also a two-time NXT Champion and a two-time WWE Intercontinental Champion.
Devitt is widely known for his tenure with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Prince Devitt, where he is a three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, having held the title twice with Minoru and four times with Ryusuke Taguchi.[5] He is also a two-time winner of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, having won in 2010 and 2013, as well as being a founding member and the original leader of the Bullet Club stable. Through NJPW’s working relationship with Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Devitt also wrestled there, becoming a one-time NWA World Historic Middleweight Champion. He also wrestled for a number of independent promotions, becoming a one-time ICW Zero-G Champion, one-time RPW British Cruiserweight Champion and a two-time NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion.[6][5]
After signing with WWE’s developmental system, NXT, and adopting his current ring name, Bálor won the NXT Championship, and he was the longest reigning champion at 292 days until Adam Cole broke the record on 19 March 2020.[7] Also during his time in NXT, Bálor became the first co-winner of the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Samoa Joe. Shortly after arriving on the main roster, Bálor became the first wrestler in WWE history to win a world title in their pay-per-view debut,[8] the second ever Irish world champion in WWE (after Sheamus) as well as becoming the quickest wrestler in WWE history to win a world title at 27 days following his main roster debut by becoming the inaugural WWE Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016.[9] During his time on the main roster, Bálor was also a two-time Intercontinental Champion. In 2019, Bálor returned to NXT, later winning the NXT Championship in 2020 becoming the third two-time champion (after Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura). In 2021, the NXT Championship became officially recognized by WWE as a world championship during Bálor’s reign making him a three-time world champion in WWE.
After training at NWA UK Hammerlock, Devitt debuted for them in 2000 at the age of 18, soon winning the NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship. After graduating, his wrestling career started quickly, and he began touring Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In mid-2002, Devitt, along with Paul Tracey, opened NWA Ireland, his own wrestling promotion based in Ireland. The promotion soon became the sister group of NWA UK Hammerlock as both promoted under the NWA banner. As part of NWA Ireland, Devitt trained future WWE competitor Becky Lynch.[17]
Devitt squaring off with Dru Onyx in 2004
On 8 October 2005, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the NWA 57th Anniversary Show, Devitt defeated Dru Onyx for his second British Commonwealth title. After the match both participants were invited to the New Japan Inoki Dojo in Santa Monica, California to train.[18] During late 2005, Devitt also began competing for the U.S.–based Millennium Wrestling Federation (MWF). He made his debut in a triple threat match at Soul Survivor III on 5 November, challenging for the MWF Television Championship against the champion Eddie Edwards and John Walters.[19] He made his television debut on the November edition of MWF Ultra, in a match against Osiris.[19] After impressing many promoters and trainers, he was invited to train in New Japan’s main dojo in Tokyo, where, in early 2006, he began training in the Japanese style of professional wrestling. He lost the British Commonwealth Championship to Karl Anderson in March 2006.[18]
In June 2007, Devitt participated in a tournament for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) called “Reclaiming the Glory”, which was to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. The championship had been controlled by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) for several years, but in 2007 NWA had terminated its agreement with TNA. In the first round, Devitt defeated Australian wrestler Mikey Nicholls, but lost in the second round to Bryan Danielson.[20]
