Balor Club: Face or Heel?

Balor Club has officially arrived as the newest trio in WWE. Finn Balor, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows each set  great expectations when they signed with WWE, but their recent time on the backburner of RAW rekindled a much needed reunion. Booking for these three individuals has been borderline atrocious in the past few months, with Finn jobbing out to Kane and “The Club” jobbing out to a wweshop.com Christmas commercial. Thankfully though, they’re on track to all do something meaningful. How should WWE book them now though?

Finn Balor

Finn Balor is a notorious babyface player in WWE. Since he started up in NXT, he’s been a genuine crowd-pleasing babyface (tough to find) with a strong in ring skill set. I do not believe he’s in the same orbit as an AJ Styles or Kota Ibushi in the realm of ring work, but he’s certainly leagues above many of his WWE peers.

As Michael Cole loves to remind us, Finn Balor is the first ever Universal champion. To me, that means that the company is capable of holding stock within Finn, but that must have soured during his untimely injury. Now with the title hugging Brock Lesnar’s aptly muscular waist, Finn can’t even get a damn match for the title he never lost. The WWE now does not have faith in Finn to hang with the big men in the company, so he’s recently been lost in a sea of meaningless matches. He needs a reboot in order to be built as a legitimate threat, and I think I know just the guys to get him there.

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows

When these guys made their debut, I was both excited and instantly intimidated. They came out and ambushed another team while wearing t shirts and jeans and I instantly thought “thank god they’re here, they’re so badass.” WWE though made sure to make that feeling fade with time. After countless losses, embarrassment and an unnoticeable tag title run, the boys that once ran the NJPW tag division are now irrelevant.

They have some decent stuff going with the “nerd-o-meter” idea, but that’s just a saying, a concept without legs. The Club also needs a reboot because they need to be seen as the powerful threat they were when they invaded RAW in their debut.

Face or Heel?

Now that WWE finally putthe Balor Club together, we have some room to grow here. These three talents were drifting and WWE came to their senses and gave them all something to actually work with. The question is now what they’ll do to expand upon it. Do they let Finn Balor’s popularity carry the team to a beloved face run, or do they take a page from NJPW and market these guys as straight heels. Spoiler: I would lean towards the latter.

On the most recent RAW it was pretty unclear what was happening when Balor Club confronted Rollins, Reigns and Jordan. Roman and Jordan were getting the boos and Balor Club got the cheers (mainly because of Finn Balor’s involvement.) To me, that is no way to do things. Lines need to be formed on the Balor Club characters and their group objectives. There needs to be some sense of direction and shared sentiment among the members.

Finn accomplished so much in NJPW as a heel and I believe he may be his best when he is able to have that conniving quality. Look at AJ Styles, when he started the heel role in WWE, his popularity shot up immensely. Not that AJ wasn’t popular before the heel turn, it just very much helped him in getting to the top of the mountain in WWE. That is what Balor needs here, a dastardly heel run to build him some personality that he sorely lacks and also get him to that upper echelon.

Gallows and Anderson already are heels, but they’ve been tweening in the past few months. I would take the Balor Club opportunity to toughen them up again, to really make them the team that just goes out there and pummels everyone in sight each and every week. The Club displayed that they have a personality, and those heel personas need to help Finn Balor and also grow Balor Club into an intimidating group.

The Verdict

Turning Balor Club fully heel is the right move. They will gain traction in many ways as they could run rampant through RAW in 2018. The stable opens up a lot of options for its members, as Finn could be a viable title contender with some help on the side and Gallows/Anderson could reignite their tag team title hunt with added motivation. Imagine if they moved to SmackDown too and had a face AJ in a program with a heel Finn? All the possibilities make a hell Balor Club a desirable prospect, but will WWE pull the trigger on turning Balor? If they want him to actually succeed, they will.