Finn Balor will be returning from injury very soon. (WWE.com)
Finn Balor is now expected to return from injury in March.
That update comes from Dave Meltzer on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer reports that Balor is scheduled to return in about two weeks. He also notes that Balor will likely be at WrestleMania 33, though it’s not yet clear in what capacity.
Balor was legitimately injured during his match at SummerSlam in August, forcing him to give up his newly-won WWE Universal Championship. He underwent shoulder surgery and has been recovering for the past six months; it was speculated that he could return for this year’s Royal Rumble, but Balor was not quite ready last month.
He did recently make a return at an NXT show, although WWE noted that Balor was not yet medically cleared to compete.
It should be interesting to see how Balor is incorporated back into the ongoing WWE storylines, especially just a few weeks before WrestleMania. One possibility is that he’ll be thrown into the ongoing feud between Seth Rollins and Triple H and Samoa Joe. After all, Triple H is the one responsible for handing over Balor’s newly-vacated Universal Championship to Kevin Owens, and Triple H’s rant about promising superstars failing him by being injured could easily apply to Balor as well. This could also give Balor an opportunity to fight Samoa Joe, with whom Balor had his final match in NXT. The direction of this storyline will depend largely on whether Seth Rollins is able to return from his injury in time for WrestleMania.
Balor could also go right back after his Universal Championship title, which depending on the result of Fastlane will be held either by Goldberg or Kevin Owens. At WrestleMania itself, though, Goldberg will be busy with a match against Brock Lesnar, and Kevin Owens is widely expected to have a match against Chris Jericho.
Assuming Balor is indeed medically cleared to compete in two weeks, he would likely be returning on the episode of Monday Night Raw airing March 13th.