WWE Royal Rumble: Finn Balor reveals why he missed huge PPV

United States Champion Finn Balor has revealed why he was absent from WWE TV at the start of the year and missed the Royal Rumble.

Fans were left mystified in January when Balor was left off the Royal Rumble match and images surfaced online of the 40-year-old back home in Ireland, without any reason to why he wasn’t in the States for the event. 

Balor has now explained during an interview with BT Sport that it was a simple case of having to get Visa renewed and therefore couldn’t be part of the annual rumble match. 

I haven’t spoken about this, but I didn’t want to take any time off. I didn’t want to miss any shows. I didn’t need any time off, I wasn’t injured, I didn’t need a rest. Legally, my visa needed to be renewed and I needed to go home to Ireland to go to the US embassy to get a new visa. That’s why I wasn’t at the Royal Rumble and that’s why I wasn’t there for a month. Everyone is asking questions, ‘Finn’s not here, Finn’s not there.’ It was strictly a legal paperwork issue that needed to be rectified and was kind of pushed through COVID because we couldn’t travel. It was kind of a window opened up and we said, ‘look we’re going to do it eventually, let’s just do it now.’ And that’s what happened. The time was taken off reluctantly in January to take care of that paperwork, but thank god it’s taken care of for the next 10 years.

The Prince has quickly made up for the lost time by capturing his first United States title, by defeating Damian Priest on the February 28th episode of Raw. Balor is now expected to defend his belt at WrestleMania in a re-match with The Archer of Imfamy and possibly Seth Rollins, if Rollins’ planned meeting with Cody Rhodes doesn’t go ahead. 

transcription via WrestlingInc.