Finn Balor gives his honest thoughts on WWE NXT 2.0 change

Finn Balor has said that he feels WWE NXT had to change, following his second stint on the black and gold brand.

Balor enjoyed great success during both his spells in NXT. Making his WWE debut on the brand in 2014 and going on to reign as the then longest running NXT Champion. After a call-up to the main roster where he’d become the first-ever Universal Champion, the Irishman returned to the brand in 2019.

Looking for a refresh following a two-month absence from WWE TV, Balor’s second run saw him bring out his darker more serious side and The Prince would reign once again as NXT Champion before moving over to SmackDown in July last year. 

The current United States Champion has now explained to Corey Graves on his After the Bell podcast, that after leaving NXT he felt that the brand needed a change and some fresh faces injected into it. 

I think it was needed. I don’t want to say it was getting stale but having been there for about a year and a half into my second run, I felt like all the matches had taken place, or like it was going on like a cycle over and over again, and that something needed to change.

I feel like pretty much as soon as I left, the 2.0 came in, and it was a completely new crop of superstars, you know, young, fresh people. As a fan, like when I was younger, I never took joy out of seeing the same matches, or the same people every week. I was always hungry like, ‘Hey, who’s this new guy? What’s his backstory? Where did he come from? Oh, I wonder what moves he does?’ I was so curious about wanting to learn about these new guys. I feel like for me as a fan, that’s what I want.

Since Balor’s departure, NXT has been rebranded. In September, WWE debuted NXT 2.0, a colourful more sports entertainment-like