Finn Balor has opened up on original plans for the 2017 Royal Rumble.

The Royal Rumble PPV (pay-per-view) is considered as one of the big four WWE PPV events of the year. You have WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series. Many fans thought that the former Universal Champion would make his return from injury at the event.

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However, that was not the case. If you recall, at the 2016 SummerSlam, Balor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural WWE Universal Champion and win his first world title.In the match, he sustained a shoulder injury during the match, and an MRI revealed a labrum tear that would require surgery, which was successful. As a result of this injury, it was expected that Balor would be out four to six months. Thus Balor would be relinquishing his newly won WWE Universal Championship due to his injury.

On March 10th, 2017, Balor made his in-ring return at a live event in a six-man tag team match by teaming with Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn to defeat Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Triple H. Balor made his television return after WrestleMania 33 on the April 3rd episode of Raw by teaming with former rival Rollins to take on Owens and Joe in a winning effort.

Balor recently spoke with The Orlando Sentinel to talk about various topics. During the interview, he spoke about missing the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 33. Here is what he had to say:

“I was obviously heartbroken not to be included at WrestleMania. There was talk about putting me in the Royal Rumble [in January], but when I missed that deadline by a week or 10 days, everything was put on hold [creatively]. WrestleMania just wasn’t meant to be.”

Balor is scheduled to wrestle Bray Wyatt in a singles match at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view event next Sunday. He was asked about working with the former WWE Champion.

“Bray is an interesting cat. I’ve admired him for a long time. I think he’s one of the most underrated talents we have in the ring and on the mic if you can ever get the mic off of him. He’s a huge man – it’ll be hard to get a hold on him when I can’t get my arms around him – but I look forward to adapting my style for him. I’m a big fan of seeing smaller guys vs. big men.”

What are your thoughts on the original plans for Balor? Have YOUR say in the comments section below, and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!

Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-money-in-the-bank-fallout