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WWE News: Finn Balor Talks WWE’s Handling Of His Shoulder Injury

By Mark Suleymanov
Published on: 04:45 PST, Sep 4, 2016

The night after he captured the WWE Universal Championship, Finn Balor was forced to relinquish the championship the following night on RAW. It was, in Balor’s own words, a “whirlwind” of a 72-hour period, starting with his shoulder injury on SummerSlam evening to being on the operating table less than two days later.

There has been a lot of speculation about Balor’s return to the squared circle. Going down with an injury hurt not in a physical sense, but a mental one as he had just been called up to the main roster from NXT weeks earlier. But the Irish-born former champion was thankful, if not for anything else, how well WWE handled his unexpected injury.

“Oh my God, the way the WWE treated this situation has just blown me away. Obviously, I only found out on Monday before RAW, at 5 pm, that I was going to need surgery. And then, by, I think, 9 pm, they had it all set up that I was getting operated [on] the next afternoon, so I had to check out of the hotel at 3 am,” Balor said to Jim Ross on The Ross Report about WWE’s handling of his injury (h/t to Wrestling Inc). “We had a 5 am flight to Birmingham, Alabama. We’re in the hospital by, I want to say, 9 am, getting prepped for the surgery. So my hat’s off to WWE. They couldn’t have done a better job making sure, like, not only was I getting the best treatment, but obviously the most prompt as well.”

While nobody wants to get injured, Balor’s injury and his expected recovery time — barring major setbacks — likely put him on track for a return at or around Wrestlemania 33. “The Demon King” made it clear that when he returns, he is setting his sights on the WWE Universal Championship that he never lost.

Kevin Owens, who defeated Big Cass, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins in a fatal four-way elimination on RAW this past Monday, is the new champion.

“I’ll be doing two sessions of rehab at the Performance Center. You know we’ve got an incredible medical team down at the Performance Center in Orlando, so I’ll be in with those in the morning, I’ll rest for lunch, [and] come back in in the afternoon. That’s the plan for the next four weeks, I think. And then, we’re going to reassess. I’ll probably head back out to Birmingham to do some stuff out there with their Champion Rehabilitation. That’s what they told me.”

Usually, an injury of Balor’s severity takes four to six months to fully recover. However, as Balor explained to Ross, his injury was a lot worse than initially thought.

“They found, I guess, a labrum tear that was, like, 180 degrees, which was, like, twice as big as they expected,” Balor said. “Plus, there were some bicep issues, some pectoral issues. There were actually some bones broken in there, so they were kind enough to give me the bones in a jar, which I have on my mantle right now. It’s a nice little decoration.”

As he nurses the injury — and holds out hope that he can return sooner than expected — the longest reigning NXT champion of all-time can only rehab and hope he can recover without issue.

“I guess the original diagnosis was four to six months, but, I guess, when they found out the extra problems in there, they said it’s going to be a hard six,” Balor said. “Now, I could try and shave some time off that, but I’m not going to. If I’m ready before six months, I’m going to make sure, when the time comes around and six months is there, I’m going to be better than ever.”

[Photo by WWE]

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