Andrew Ravens
Finn Balor has opened up about one of the most talked-about dream matches that never happened in WWE — The Demon versus Bray Wyatt’s Fiend — revealing that illness was the reason the planned encounter fell apart in 2017 and calling it one of the rare matches on his wish list that he never got to have.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight Podcast, Balor detailed how close the match actually came to happening. WWE had been building toward a Sister Abigail versus Demon encounter for TLC 2017 before Wyatt was removed from the card just days before the event.
“Yeah, I think that was certainly in the works, and something that I always think about and look back on and say, I’ve been very lucky to have had almost every match that I’ve ever wanted to have,” Balor said. “But that’s one that I didn’t get to have, and we almost got Sister Abigail versus the Demon, and Wyndham had gotten sick a couple of days before we had to switch that match out at short notice.”
With Wyatt off the show, WWE flew in AJ Styles from SmackDown to face Balor at TLC 2017 in what turned out to be their first-ever match. Balor spoke warmly about Styles and the experience of finally sharing a ring with someone he had admired throughout his career.
“AJ is someone who I’ve looked up to my whole career, someone who I’ve admired,” Balor said. “You can kind of look up to people, but not really relate to them. I’ve always looked up to John Cena as the pinnacle of being like a WWE superstar, but I don’t really relate to him in the sense that our journeys have been slightly different, and the way we work is different. But AJ, I feel like we’re very, very similar. I was just like a couple of years behind them, so I’ve always admired and aspired to be like. So getting to go in the ring with AJ that night was absolutely amazing.”
The Demon and The Fiend never shared the ring in WWE. Wyatt passed away in August 2023, permanently closing the door on a feud the two had hoped to revisit.
