NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day was the 33rd NXT TakeOver and ninth Vengeance professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE . It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division . The event took place on February 14, 2021, from the Capitol Wrestling Center , hosted at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida . The event revived WWE's Vengeance PPV name, thus was the first Vengeance held since 2011 . The event's name is also a play on Valentine's Day , as the event was held on the holiday. It was the first Vengeance to livestream on the WWE Network , as well as the final NXT TakeOver event and only Vengeance to air on the American version of the WWE Network before its merger under Peacock in March. It would also be the final Vengeance to air on PPV, as the following year's event was held as a television special , and while the 2023 event returned to livestreaming, NXT's major events as of the 2022 calendar year no longer air on PPV.
198-531: Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Finn Bálor defeated Pete Dunne to retain the NXT Championship . In other prominent matches, MSK ( Nash Carter and Wes Lee ) defeated Grizzled Young Veterans ( James Drake and Zack Gibson ) to win the Men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic , while in the opening bout, Dakota Kai and Raquel González defeated Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart to win
396-611: A Last Man Standing match to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship and in the opening bout, Drew McIntyre defeated Goldberg to retain Raw's WWE Championship. The event featured returns from The Hurricane , Carlito , Kane , and Christian , who wrestled his final match in WWE before signing with rival promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event produced every January by WWE since 1988. It
594-603: A WarGames match . On the December 9 episode of NXT , while Storm was being interviewed, Shirai and Ember Moon attacked her. Two weeks later, Shirai called out Storm, but when the latter did not show up, Mercedes Martinez attacked Shirai from behind. On the January 20, 2021 episode, Shirai caused Martinez and Storm to lose in the first round of the inaugural women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. The following week, Shirai and Storm brawled, and Martinez got involved, but Storm stood tall in
792-592: A behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and PPVs were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida . A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. In late August, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome . The select live audience
990-422: A fatal four–way match and then defeating Roman Reigns , who had won a similar fatal four–way match. At SummerSlam on 21 August, Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural Universal Champion and win his first world title . Since then, WWE reported that he sustained a shoulder injury during the match and an MRI revealed a labrum tear that would require surgery, which was successful. Because of this, it
1188-515: A mixed tag team match . At Night 2 of WrestleMania 39 on 2 April, Bálor, in his "Demon" persona, lost to Edge in a Hell in a Cell match . During the match, Bálor suffered an injury after getting hit by a ladder thrown by Edge and had to be medically treated in the ring. Bálor would then be selected amongst a group of Raw superstars to participate in a tournament to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion at Night of Champions . On 8 May episode of Raw , Bálor defeated Cody Rhodes and The Miz in
1386-482: A triple threat match in the first round of the tournament, but lost to eventual champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins in the semifinals later that night. After Rollins won the title, Bálor began feuding with him, citing how Rollins costed him the Universal Championship from his injury back in 2016 as a major reason for going after him on 12 June episode of Raw before challenging him to a title match at Money in
1584-419: A triple threat tag team match to earn an opportunity at a rematch for the titles against new champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, which also involved the teams of Naomi and Lana and Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose. Thanks to another distraction by Ric Flair and Lacey Evans, however, the match was won by Naomi and Lana. The following week, Evans defeated Charlotte by disqualification, again thanks to Ric, to earn
1782-593: A Raw Women's Championship match against Asuka at Elimination Chamber. Women's Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair also appeared that episode and teased that she would choose the Raw Women's Championship if Asuka retained at Elimination Chamber. Bad Bunny was a guest on "Miz TV". The Miz and John Morrison apologized for their actions at the Royal Rumble, which Bad Bunny accepted; however, Bad Bunny did not apologize for his own actions. Bad Bunny then stated that one of his dreams
1980-459: A backstage segment earlier, Miz (#15) proceeded to destroy Bad Bunny's DJ equipment on the stage and then celebrated with his tag team partner , John Morrison (#11). An irate Bad Bunny then came out, distracting Miz and Morrison, who were eliminated by Priest. Bad Bunny then performed a cross body on Miz and Morrison outside the ring. Kane (#18) made a surprise return and after a brief Team Hell No reunion, he chokeslammed Daniel Bryan (#17) but
2178-588: A choice of which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 37 . The men could choose to challenge for either Raw's WWE Championship , SmackDown's Universal Championship , or the NXT Championship , while the women had the choice between the Raw Women's Championship , the SmackDown Women's Championship , and the NXT Women's Championship . This was the last Royal Rumble in which three championships were an option for
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#17328690495202376-705: A clean record of eight wins, though often using outside help from his Bullet Club stablemates to win his matches. On 9 June, Devitt first defeated Kenny Omega in the semifinals and then Alex Shelley in the finals to win his second Best of the Super Juniors. Following his win, Devitt challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi, while also naming his next goal; becoming the first wrestler to hold the IWGP Junior Heavyweight and IWGP Heavyweight Championships simultaneously. On 22 June at Dominion 6.22 , Devitt defeated Tanahashi with help from Bullet Club to earn his first shot at
2574-757: A decision match to determine a new champion. On 19 September, Devitt defeated Kushida to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the second time. On 10 October at Destruction '11 , Devitt and Taguchi lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to the No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero ). Devitt made the first successful title defense of his second IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign on 12 November at Power Struggle , defeating Taka Michinoku, and followed that up by defeating
2772-459: A dive off the rigging for some of the stage lights onto both opponents on the arena floor. Another notable spot featured Martinez executing a release German suplex from the top rope to Storm, only to become entangled in the ropes herself and allow Shirai to hit her in the "tree of woe" position with a diving double foot stop. Shortly after hitting her Storm Zero finisher on Martinez for a nearfall, Storm (who seldom uses aerial maneuvers) followed with
2970-511: A double IWGP champion for the second time. Devitt continued his streak of defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against New Japan outsiders, when he successfully defended the title against Taka Michinoku on 20 February and Kushida on 19 March. In May, Devitt took part in the Invasion Tour 2011 , New Japan's first tour of the United States, during which he successfully defended
3168-483: A double-team version of Kai's Go 2 Kick signature maneuver, which involves elevating the opponent before dropping them and kicking them in the face as they fall. The end of the match came when González tossed Moon from the entrance ramp, enabling her and Kai to focus on Blackheart. González performed the Chingona Bomb on Blackheart, and both she and Kai made the cover for the decisive pinfall. This made Kai and González
3366-470: A feud between the two. At NXT TakeOver: London on 16 December, Bálor defeated Joe to retain the title. On 1 April at NXT TakeOver: Dallas , Bálor retained the NXT Championship in a rematch with Joe. On 17 April, Bálor became the longest reigning NXT Champion in history (the record has since broken by Adam Cole in 2020) by surpassing Neville's previous record of 287 days. On 21 April, Bálor lost
3564-513: A feud with Baron Corbin , whom he defeated on two different occasions—on 15 July at Extreme Rules and on 19 August at SummerSlam under his "Demon King" persona. The next night on Raw , Bálor was finally awarded with his Universal Championship rematch against newly crowned champion Roman Reigns, but was unsuccessful in regaining the title. Throughout the next few months, Bálor would compete in various matches against competitors such as Jinder Mahal , and Bobby Lashley . Bálor then started
3762-446: A feud with Drew McIntyre who saved him from an attack by Lashley only to attack Bálor himself. During that time, Bálor was announced as part of Team Raw for the traditional interbrand five–on–five elimination match at Survivor Series on 18 November, where he was the first man from the team to be eliminated by Rey Mysterio . On 16 December at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , Bálor gained revenge over McIntyre, defeating him in
3960-518: A finisher. Devitt has appeared as a playable character in the video games WWE 2K16 , WWE 2K17 , WWE 2K18 , WWE 2K19 , WWE 2K20 , WWE 2K Battlegrounds , WWE 2K22 , WWE 2K23 , and WWE 2K24 . On 19 August 2019, Devitt married Mexican sports journalist Vero Rodríguez in a private ceremony in Tulum . They had confirmed their relationship in June that year, during an interview at
4158-496: A handshake, declaring that he passed the test. In a mutual respect response, McIntyre and Goldberg embraced. Next, Sasha Banks defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Carmella (accompanied by her sommelier, Reginald). During the match, as Banks threw Carmella out of the ring, Reginald caught Carmella. Banks then performed a head scissors takeover and a Forearm on Reginald. The referee ejected Reginald from ringside. In
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#17328690495204356-562: A legitimate broken hand at TakeOver, thus delaying MSK's title shot. WWE Women's Tag Team Champions (and NXT alumnae) Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler made an appearance in the segment, trading promos with their upcoming opponents. When the March 3 match ended in a controversial finish favoring Jax and Baszler, the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship was commissioned the week after, being first awarded to Kai and González by virtue of their Dusty Cup championship. However, afterwards, they were confronted by
4554-520: A limited number of actual live fans, divided from each other by plexiglass walls. The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes , villains , or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT . On
4752-443: A match between the two being scheduled for NXT TakeOver: WarGames on 23 November, where Bálor emerged victorious. Following this, Bálor challenged Adam Cole for the NXT Championship on 18 December episode of NXT , which he lost after a distraction from the returning Johnny Gargano. Afterwards, Gargano challenged Bálor to a match at NXT TakeOver: Portland on 16 February 2020, which Bálor won. On 22 April episode of NXT , Bálor
4950-480: A match between the two on 13 May episode of NXT , where Damian Priest cost Bálor the match by using a nightstick behind the referee's back. Priest then revealed that he was the one who knocked out Bálor three weeks prior, thus turning Bálor face once again. At TakeOver: In Your House on 7 June, Bálor defeated Priest. At NXT TakeOver: XXX on 22 August, Bálor defeated Timothy Thatcher . On 8 September at NXT : Super Tuesday II , Bálor defeated Adam Cole to win
5148-452: A number of independent promotions , becoming a one-time ICW Zero-G Champion , one-time RPW British Cruiserweight Champion and a two-time NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion . After signing with WWE's developmental system , NXT , and adopting his current ring name, Bálor won the NXT Championship , with his 292-day reign being the longest in the championship's history until March 2020. Also during his time in NXT, Bálor became
5346-491: A one-off show in 2011. In 2021, WWE resurrected Vengeance as an NXT TakeOver event, making it the ninth Vengeance, the first since 2011, the first brand-exclusive Vengeance since 2006, and the first Vengeance to livestream on the WWE Network in addition to traditional PPV. The name of the event was also a play on Valentine's Day , as the event was held on February 14, 2021, the same day as the holiday. The official theme song for
5544-471: A rare three-way match for his first successful defense of the title. Following his win, Devitt accepted a challenge for the title made by his tag team partner, Ryusuke Taguchi. On 3 February, Devitt picked up a big win, when he pinned reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi in a tag team match, where he and Karl Anderson faced Tanahashi and Taguchi. Seven days later, Devitt defeated Taguchi at The New Beginning for his second successful defense of
5742-516: A record of five wins and four losses. The rivalry between Devitt and Tanahashi culminated in a Lumberjack Deathmatch on 29 September at Destruction , where Tanahashi was victorious. With the Tanahashi rivalry behind him, Devitt moved onto a new rivalry with Togi Makabe, who played a big part in him losing the Lumberjack Deathmatch. Meanwhile, Devitt also found himself a new challenger for
5940-416: A rematch for the title on 25 May episode of NXT , but was defeated; his rematch with Kross would mark Bálor's final match in NXT. After a two-month hiatus from television, Bálor made his return on 16 July episode of SmackDown . He would face WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns on two occasions, once at SmackDown and the second one at Extreme Rules on 26 September under his "Demon" persona, but he
6138-555: A rematch, where he lost the title to Lashley following interference from Rush. On 25 March edition of Raw , Bálor defeated Lashley and Jinder Mahal in a handicap match to gain a rematch for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 35 . Bálor, using his "Demon" persona, went on to defeat Lashley on 7 April at WrestleMania and regained the Intercontinental Championship. The following night on Raw , Bálor defeated
NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day - Misplaced Pages Continue
6336-444: A rematch. The feud between the two continued throughout the following months and led to another match on 24 September at No Mercy , where Bálor once again defeated Wyatt. The two were also set to face in a rematch between Bálor's "Demon King" and Wyatt's "Sister Abigail" at TLC on 20 October. However, Wyatt was ruled out for the event due to an illness , and was instead replaced by AJ Styles . Bálor defeated Styles, and following
6534-484: A row by defeating the team of Giant Bernard , Jushin Thunder Liger and Karl Anderson in the finals of the three-day-long tournament. On 24 July, Devitt received his rematch for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2011 , but was unable to regain the title from Ibushi. This led to a match on 14 August, where Apollo 55 successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against
6732-449: A singles match after interference by McIntyre's former ally Dolph Ziggler . After the match, Ziggler attacked Bálor backstage after the latter implied that he didn't need his help to beat McIntyre. This sparked a match between the two that took place the following night on Raw , which ended in a no contest as McIntyre would attack both of them. On 17 December tapings of 24 December edition of Raw , Bálor defeated Ziggler and McIntyre in
6930-637: A six-man tag team match after interference from Ripley. On 26 November at Survivor Series WarGames , Bálor lost to Styles. On the following episode of Raw , The Judgment Day defeated The O.C. in an eight-person mixed tag team match to end their feud. At the Royal Rumble on 28 January 2023, Bálor entered the Royal Rumble match at #20 but was eliminated by the returning Edge. Afterwards, Bálor and Priest eliminated Edge with help from Dominik, despite already being eliminated. At Elimination Chamber on 18 February, Bálor and Ripley lost to Edge and Beth Phoenix in
7128-517: A six–man tag team match. The following week, the trio officially reunited and formed "Bálor Club", an homage to their former stable . That same night, they defeated Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns and Raw Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan in a six–man tag team match. On 28 January, at the Royal Rumble , Bálor entered his first Royal Rumble match at number 2, lasting over 57 minutes and eliminating four participants before being eliminated by John Cena . Bálor competed for
7326-535: A tag team match that Miz and Morrison accepted. The following Wednesday on NXT , men's Royal Rumble winner Edge made a special appearance. He talked about how seeing the passion, drive, and focus on wrestling in NXT helped motivate him to make his comeback. He told NXT Champion Finn Bálor and Bálor's TakeOver: Vengeance Day opponent Pete Dunne that he would be watching their match, and regardless of who won, it could influence his decision on which world championship he would challenge for at WrestleMania 37, teasing
7524-520: A tag team match. After feuding with The Ascension, Bálor and Itami defeated them at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution on 11 December, where he also debuted his signature body paint. Bálor then entered an NXT Championship number one contender's tournament, defeating Curtis Axel in the first round, Itami in the semi-finals and Adrian Neville in the finals on 11 February at NXT TakeOver: Rival . Bálor received his title match against Kevin Owens on 25 March, but
7722-480: A tag team match. Over the following weeks, Bálor would score victories over Jinder Mahal and Curt Hawkins while also receiving an ominous warning from Bray Wyatt and confronting Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson . On 4 June at Extreme Rules , Bálor competed in a fatal five–way extreme rules match to determine the number one contender for Brock Lesnar 's Universal Championship, in which Bálor lost after he passed out from Samoa Joe's Coquina Clutch . In
7920-503: A tag team named "Prince Prince", a reference to both Devitt's ring name and Minoru's nickname, "Black Prince". In November 2007, TNA made a tour of Japan, during which Devitt and Minoru were defeated by TNA wrestlers Senshi and Christopher Daniels . On 27 January 2008, Devitt and Minoru won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship , this served as Devitt's first major tag title reign. They lost
8118-422: A team and Bálor's third reign individually. Devitt began his career in 2001, before becoming widely known for his tenure with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), under the ring name Prince Devitt . Within the promotion, he is a three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion , having held the title twice with Minoru and four times with Ryusuke Taguchi . He
NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day - Misplaced Pages Continue
8316-503: A team and individually. The actual pay-per-view opened with Drew McIntyre defending the WWE Championship against Goldberg. Before the match could officially begin, McIntyre performed a Glasgow Kiss and a Spear on Goldberg, taking him out of the ring. But at ringside, Goldberg responded with a throw into a steel steps and a Spear on McIntyre through the barricade. Goldberg returned to the ring and after McIntyre also managed to return to
8514-643: A title rematch between Banks and Carmella was scheduled for the Royal Rumble. At TLC, Charlotte Flair and Raw Women's Champion Asuka defeated Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship . On January 25, a championship rematch between the two teams was scheduled for the Royal Rumble, and was later scheduled for the Kickoff pre-show. During the Royal Rumble Kickoff pre-show, Raw Women's Champion Asuka and Charlotte Flair defended
8712-584: A top rope diving headbutt. As she went for the cover, Shirai hit her signature Over the Moon-sault on both opponents, pinning Martinez to win the match and retain the championship. The main event for the NXT Championship between the champion Finn Bálor and challenger Pete Dunne followed, the first time the two had ever wrestled in any sort of match together, let alone one-on-one. Dunne repeatedly used joint manipulation on Bálor, splitting his fingers and bending his wrist in unnatural positions. He came close to winning
8910-565: A tournament for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) called "Reclaiming the Glory", which was to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion . The championship had been controlled by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) for several years, but in 2007 NWA had terminated its agreement with TNA. In the first round, Devitt defeated Australian wrestler Mikey Nicholls , but lost in the second round to Bryan Danielson . The day after losing
9108-400: A triceps tear, and Raw's Randy Orton started the match as the first and second entrants, respectively. The two fought at ringside before the match officially began. They eventually fought into the ring and the match began. Orton, along with SmackDown's Sami Zayn (#3) and Mustafa Ali (#4), began to triple team Edge, however he fought them off and performed a Spear on Orton, who rolled out of
9306-411: A triple threat match, ending the feud. On 12 January 2019 at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool , Bálor made a surprise appearance as Travis Banks 's replacement in his match against Jordan Devlin , as Banks was attacked by Devlin earlier that day, and subsequently defeated Devlin. On 14 January episode of Raw , after Braun Strowman was removed from his Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar at
9504-606: A two-month suspension. The final five were Edge, Christian, Rollins, Strowman, and Orton (unbeknownst to the rest at this time as he had not returned from his injury earlier). Rollins convinced Strowman to work together and eliminate Edge and Christian, however Strowman turned on Rollins soon after. As Strowman tried to eliminate Edge, Christian tried to assist Edge to eliminate Strowman. Rollins would eliminate Christian, which helped give leverage to Edge to simultaneously eliminate Strowman. Edge then eliminated Rollins soon after. Immediately following Rollins' elimination, Orton returned to
9702-557: A visa. On 28 July, WWE officially confirmed Devitt's signing, announcing he would report to NXT that same day. On 24 September, his new ring name was revealed to be Finn Bálor, derived from Irish mythological figures Fionn mac Cumhaill and Balor (the latter is also Gaelic for "Demon King"). Bálor made his NXT debut on 6 November, aiding Hideo Itami against The Ascension ( Konnor and Viktor ). In his debut match on 23 October, he and Itami defeated Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd in
9900-510: Is a supporter of English football team Tottenham Hotspur FC . Royal Rumble (2021) The 2021 Royal Rumble was the 34th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE . It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions . The event took place on January 31, 2021, from the WWE ThunderDome , hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida . It
10098-507: Is also a two-time winner of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, having won in 2010 and 2013 , as well as being a founding member and the original leader of the Bullet Club stable . Through NJPW's working relationship with Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Devitt also wrestled there, becoming a one-time NWA World Historic Middleweight Champion . He also wrestled for
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#173286904952010296-446: Is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views (PPV), along with WrestleMania , SummerSlam , and Survivor Series , dubbed the "Big Four". It is named after the Royal Rumble match , a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The 2021 event was the 34th Royal Rumble and was scheduled to be held on January 31, 2021. It featured wrestlers from
10494-424: The 79th Anniversary Show , where he, Atlantis and Místico II were defeated in a six-man tag team match by Dragón Rojo Jr. , Negro Casas and Último Guerrero, when Rojo pinned Devitt for the win. On 21 September, Devitt was again pinned by Rojo in a six-man tag team match, where he teamed with Blue Panther and La Sombra to face Rojo, Mr. Águila and Taichi. Afterwards, Devitt accepted Rojo's challenge for
10692-492: The Extreme Rules kick-off show on 14 July, Bálor lost the championship to Shinsuke Nakamura . The following night on Raw , Bálor was assaulted by "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt , culminating in a match at SummerSlam on 11 August, where Bálor was defeated by Wyatt. After a near two-month absence from television, Bálor made his return to WWE programming on 2 October episode of NXT , confronting NXT Champion Adam Cole following
10890-459: The G1 Climax , as a substitute for the injured Naomichi Marufuji. Devitt managed to win four out of his seven matches in the round-robin stage of the tournament, including a major victory over former four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, but finished fifth in his block and missed advancing to the finals by a single point. On 3 September, Devitt made his second successful defense of
11088-851: The MWF Television Championship against the champion Eddie Edwards and R. J. Brewer . He made his television debut on the November edition of MWF Ultra , in a match against Osiris. After impressing many promoters and trainers, he was invited to train in New Japan's main dojo in Tokyo , where, in early 2006, he began training in the Japanese style of professional wrestling . He lost the British Commonwealth Championship to Karl Anderson in March 2006. In June 2007, Devitt participated in
11286-587: The NWA 57th Anniversary Show , Devitt defeated Dru Onyx for his second British Commonwealth title. After the match both participants were invited to the New Japan Inoki Dojo in Santa Monica, California , to train. During late 2005, Devitt also began competing for the U.S.–based Millennium Wrestling Federation (MWF). He made his debut in a triple threat match at Soul Survivor III on 5 November, challenging for
11484-961: The NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship . After graduating, his wrestling career started quickly, and he began touring Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In mid-2002, Devitt, along with Paul Tracey, opened NWA Ireland, his own wrestling promotion based in Ireland. The promotion soon became the sister group of NWA UK Hammerlock as both promoted under the NWA banner. As part of NWA Ireland , Devitt trained future WWE competitor Becky Lynch , future European Heavyweight Champion and ICW Zero-G Champion Andy Roberts and future NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin . On 8 October 2005, in Nashville, Tennessee, at
11682-542: The Raw and SmackDown brand divisions with a select few NXT wrestlers and WWE veterans also appearing in both the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches. In addition to airing on tradition pay-per-view, the event was available to livestream on the WWE Network . The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers. Traditionally, the winner of the match earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2021,
11880-522: The Raw episode of 28 January, Bálor was interrupted by Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush while addressing his loss and was subsequently attacked by Lashley, sparking a feud between the two. On 17 February at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Bálor defeated Lashley and Rush in a two-on-one handicap match to capture the Intercontinental Championship after Bálor pinned Rush. Bálor faced Lashley on 11 March edition of Raw in
12078-448: The Royal Rumble after damaging Vince McMahon 's limo, Bálor was booked in a fatal-four way match against Drew McIntyre, John Cena and Baron Corbin to determine who would take Strowman's place against Lesnar at the pay-per-view, in which Bálor emerged victorious after pinning Cena. On 27 January at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Bálor was defeated by Lesnar via submission. After the match, Lesnar attacked Bálor with three F-5 s. On
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#173286904952012276-429: The SmackDown Women's Championship against Carmella . Over the next couple of weeks, Carmella continuously taunted Banks, yearning for a rematch. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown , Banks stated that she would give Carmella a rematch only if she faced Carmella's sommelier , Reginald, in a match first. The intergender match occurred the following week, in which Banks defeated Reginald. Banks kept her promise and
12474-483: The Super J Tag Tournament in an attempt to regain the championship, but were defeated in the finals by the team of El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto. On 30 May, Devitt entered the 2010 Best of the Super Juniors tournament and two weeks later finished second in his block with five victories, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On 13 June, Devitt first defeated Taiji Ishimori in the semifinals and then Kota Ibushi in
12672-585: The UEFA Champions League final , and Devitt proposed to Rodríguez the following day. They reside in Orlando, Florida . Devitt holds a first-degree black belt in IBF submission wrestling. He is good friends with fellow professional wrestlers AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Tama Tonga, Jordan Devlin and Dru Onyx. He is an avid comic book reader and collector of Lego , and has worn face and body paint inspired by comic book characters when wrestling. He
12870-501: The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship after interference from Dominik, Ripley and JD McDonagh . With this win, Bálor became the 24th WWE Grand Slam Champion . On 25 September episode of Raw , Bálor and Priest retained their titles in a rematch against Owens and Zayn. However, they lost the titles to Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso at Fastlane on 7 October after McDonagh accidentally hit Priest with his Money in
13068-567: The WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida , featuring the "Capitol Wrestling Center" setup, an homage to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation , the predecessor to WWE. Like the WWE ThunderDome utilized for Raw and SmackDown 's programming, LED boards were placed around the Performance Center so that fans could attend virtually, while additionally, friends and family members of the wrestlers were in attendance, along with
13266-503: The "TakeOver" moniker became the brand used by WWE for all of their NXT live specials. While originally exclusive to the WWE Network, NXT TakeOver events also became available on traditional pay-per-view (PPV) beginning with TakeOver 31 in October 2020. Announced on January 6, 2021, Vengeance Day was scheduled as the 33rd NXT TakeOver event. It revived WWE's old Vengeance pay-per-view, which had been produced annually from 2001 to 2007 with
13464-436: The 2022 event was held as a television special, the 2023 event returned to livestreaming, although not PPV, as beginning with the 2022 calendar year, NXT's major events no longer air on PPV, just livestreaming. a ^ Ciampa and Thatcher replaced Ashante "Thee" Adonis and Desmond Troy after they were both (kayfabe) injured by Karrion Kross . b ^ Lucha House Party were guest participants. c ^ This
13662-660: The 24-year-old would be a king already. Eventually, Simon Inoki came up with the name Prince Devitt, which Devitt himself also preferred. In May 2006, New Japan started holding brand–exclusive events, and Devitt was assigned to the Wrestle Land brand, debuting under a mask as the second Pegasus Kid, which led to comparisons between Devitt and the original Pegasus Kid, Chris Benoit . During his tour of New Japan in late August and early September, he started competing again as his Prince Devitt identity, utilizing an Irish superstar gimmick. He eventually turned heel and started teaming with
13860-599: The Bank , to which Rollins accepted. At the event on 1 July, Bálor was unsuccessful in defeating Rollins for the title after an unintended distraction by Priest, who had just won the Money in the Bank ladder match earlier during the night and seemingly had intentions of cashing in. At SummerSlam on 5 August, Bálor failed to win the title from Rollins despite interference from Priest, Dominik and Ripley. On 2 September at Payback , Bálor and Priest defeated Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to win
14058-648: The Bank briefcase , ending their first reign at 35 days, but they regained the titles in a rematch on 16 October episode of Raw . On 13 November episode of Raw, Bálor and Priest defeated Rhodes and Uso in a rematch to retain their titles after interference from Drew McIntyre . On 24 November episode of SmackDown, Bálor and Priest successfully defended their titles against The Street Profits ( Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford ). The next night at Survivor Series WarGames , Bálor participated in his first WarGames match alongside The Judgment Day (which now included McDonagh) and McIntyre against Rhodes, Rollins, Uso, Zayn and
14256-456: The British Commonwealth Championship, Devitt signed a contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in March 2006. In April 2006, he made his NJPW debut against El Samurai , using the ring name Prince Devitt. Devitt later stated in an interview with PowerSlam Mag that New Japan renamed him Prince Devitt because nobody Japanese could pronounce his actual name. He was originally going to be called King David until people started questioning why
14454-469: The Control Terrorism Unit (CTU) in an apprentice–type role. While teaming with CTU, he began a losing streak, aggravating his teammates to such a degree that they did not want anything to do with him anymore. This led to him being given one final chance on 6 October, where he rose to the occasion and impressed his CTU teammates enough to continue his association with them. To solidify his status with
14652-675: The Evil Eye , an antagonistic character from Gaelic mythology) and The Demon (sometimes the Demon King), a darker and more aggressive otherworldly alter-ego. After Devitt returned to NXT in 2019, he said he will use the character of The Demon less as its overuse had ruined the element of surprise. Devitt uses a double foot stomp named "Coup de Grace" as a finisher. He also uses a lifting single underhook DDT (named " Bloody Sunday " in NJPW and " 1916 " in WWE) as
14850-508: The February 3 episode of NXT , after weeks of setting his sights on the NXT Championship , Pete Dunne demanded defending champion Finn Bálor give him a title match. Bálor then came to the ring and told Dunne he would get his match at Vengeance Day. Men's Royal Rumble winner Edge then came to the ring. He spoke about how seeing the drive, passion, and focus on wrestling in NXT helped motivate him to make his comeback. He said he had never held
15048-456: The Golden☆Lovers. On 11 September, Apollo 55 defeated Taichi and Taka Michinoku to make their seventh successful IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship defense, breaking the record for most defenses during a single reign. When Kota Ibushi was forced to vacate the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship after dislocating his left shoulder, Devitt, as the previous champion, was ushered into
15246-506: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Later in the event, reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada accepted Devitt's challenge for his title on the condition that he first defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against his Chaos stablemate Gedo . On 5 July, Devitt defeated Gedo in his fourth successful title defense, advancing to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against Okada. The title match between
15444-450: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kota Ibushi, avenging the loss from the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match. On 23 January at Fantastica Mania 2011 , a New Japan and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) co–promoted event in Tokyo, Devitt and Taguchi defeated Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, making Devitt
15642-614: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Low Ki on 14 May in New York City and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against the Strong Style Thugz ( Homicide and Low Ki) on 15 May in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . On 26 May, Devitt entered the 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournament . After losing his opening match against Davey Richards, Devitt went on a seven match winning streak to finish first in his block in
15840-694: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, defeating DDT Pro-Wrestling representative Kenny Omega , that he won on 11 November 2012. Omega and Kota Ibushi, the team known collectively as the Golden☆Lovers , came back on 11 October at Destruction '10 and defeated Devitt and Taguchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. On 11 December, Devitt made his third successful IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship defense, defeating another New Japan outsider, Davey Richards . On 4 January 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Devitt successfully defended
16038-446: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, recent NJPW signee Kota Ibushi, who pinned him a tag team match on 9 November at Power Struggle , where he and Bad Luck Fale were defeated by Ibushi and Makabe. From 23 November to 7 December, Devitt and Fale took part in the 2013 World Tag League , where they finished with a record of three wins and three losses, with a loss against the previously winless Captain New Japan and Hiroshi Tanahashi on
16236-469: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On 3 March, Devitt main evented New Japan's 41st anniversary event, losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi in a non-title match. Following the loss, Devitt began portraying a more cocky and villainous persona, regularly disrespecting both partners and opponents, with the exception of Ryusuke Taguchi, whom he tried to get to go along with his new attitude. On 5 April, Devitt defeated Alex Shelley for his third successful defense of
16434-400: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Two days later at Invasion Attack , Apollo 55 unsuccessfully challenged Time Splitters for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, after which Devitt turned on Taguchi, ending the longtime partnership between the two, and debuted Bad Luck Fale as his new "bouncer", while also dubbing himself the "Real Rocknrolla". The first match between
16632-566: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, starting Devitt's record-breaking sixth reign as one half of the champions. On 12 February at The New Beginning , Apollo 55 lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship back to the No Remorse Corps in their first defense. This led to a match on 10 March, where Devitt defeated Davey Richards to make his fourth successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On 14 March 2012, Devitt traveled to Mexico for his first tour of
16830-468: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. On 30 May, Devitt entered the 2009 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. After winning his block in the round-robin stage of the tournament, Devitt advanced to the semifinals, where he defeated Kota Ibushi . In the end, Devitt was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Koji Kanemoto . In December, Devitt entered the 2009 Super J-Cup . After defeating Atsushi Aoki , Danshoku Dino and Yamato , Devitt
17028-514: The January 8 episode of SmackDown , Universal Champion Roman Reigns took issue with the recent booking decisions made by WWE official Adam Pearce , including a gauntlet match that Pearce had scheduled for that night to determine Reigns' challenger for his title at the Royal Rumble. Reigns questioned if Pearce booked himself for the match, to which Pearce responded that would have been a conflict of interest . Later, Reigns' special counsel, Paul Heyman , confronted Pearce backstage and stated that he
17226-656: The NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship. On the 28 September CMLL Super Viernes show, Devitt lost the title to Rojo, ending his reign at 182 days. Devitt returned to New Japan on 8 October at King of Pro-Wrestling , challenging IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Low Ki to a title match, after he had regained the title from Kota Ibushi. On 21 October, Apollo 55 entered the 2012 Super Jr. Tag Tournament , defeating Chaos World Wrestling Warriors ( Brian Kendrick and Low Ki) in their first round match. On 2 November, Devitt and Taguchi defeated
17424-546: The NXT Champion the following week, Cole did enter to the familiar Undisputed Era theme and with Undisputed Era-tinged wrestling gear, having claimed that the group would only die when he said so and that by attacking O'Reilly and Strong he had merely cut dead weight. At the conclusion of the match, O'Reilly appeared and ripped Cole's Undisputed Era armband off. On March 24, during the contract signing for their unsanctioned match at TakeOver: Stand & Deliver , both men spoke of
17622-583: The NXT Championship and told Bálor and Dunne that he would be watching their match at Vengeance Day, and regardless of who won, it may help him decide which world championship he would challenge for at WrestleMania 37 . In January 2021, the sixth Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic was announced, and for the first time, a women's version was also announced. The finals of both the men's and women's tournaments were scheduled for Vengeance Day. At TakeOver: WarGames in December 2020, Toni Storm 's team came out victorious against NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai 's team in
17820-524: The NXT Championship to Joe at a live event in Lowell, Massachusetts , ending his reign at 292 days. At NXT TakeOver: The End on 8 June, Bálor lost to Joe in the first ever NXT steel cage match in a rematch for the NXT Championship, marking his first TakeOver loss, and subsequently his first loss under his "Demon" persona. Bálor wrestled his final NXT match on 30 July, teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura to defeat Bobby Roode and Samoa Joe. On 19 July 2016, Bálor
18018-454: The NXT Women's Champion. The following week, she challenged Shirai to a one-on-one match for the championship after Shirai won her match, pointing out that Shirai did not defeat Storm herself at TakeOver and had in fact never done so. The match was made for March 10, where Shirai retained. On January 25, 2021, WWE announced that the WWE Network would become exclusively distributed by Peacock in
18216-496: The Royal Rumble and his victory over Edge in "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" back at Backlash in 2020, Randy Orton challenged Edge to one final match on Raw . In the main event, Edge defeated Orton thanks to a distraction from Alexa Bliss (continuing a storyline between Orton, Bliss, and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt), putting an end to Edge and Orton's rivalry. Also on the following night's episode of Raw , former WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Asuka and Charlotte Flair participated in
18414-505: The Royal Rumble winner, as well as the last Royal Rumble in which the NXT Championship and NXT Women's Championship was an eligible option for that winner, as in September 2021, the NXT brand reverted to being WWE's developmental territory . Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, WWE Hall of Famer Edge won the men's Royal Rumble match and
18612-407: The Super Juniors tournament , which he started off with losses against Kushida and Taichi. Devitt bounced back, winning five out of his six remaining matches, including a win over Jushin Thunder Liger in the final round-robin match of the tournament on 9 June, to finish second in his block and advance to the semifinals of the tournament. The following day, Devitt was eliminated from the tournament in
18810-551: The United States Championship to Theory , ending his reign at 49 days. At Hell in a Cell on 5 June, Bálor, AJ Styles and Liv Morgan lost to The Judgment Day ( Edge , Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley ) in a six-person mixed tag team match . On 6 June episode of Raw , Edge introduced Bálor as the newest member of The Judgment Day, turning Bálor heel for the first time on the main roster, however, Bálor, Priest and Ripley suddenly attacked Edge, kicking him out of
19008-521: The United States as part of a new agreement with NBCUniversal , which airs Monday Night Raw and NXT on the USA Network . On March 18, the WWE Network became a premium channel under Peacock, with premium subscribers to the service receiving access to the WWE Network at no additional cost. As a result, Vengeance Day was the final NXT TakeOver, as well as the only Vengeance, to air on the American version of
19206-500: The Universal Champion, who then came out, accompanied by Heyman and Jey. Reigns then demanded that Edge choose him, however, before Edge could answer, Owens attacked Reigns with a Stunner from behind. At Elimination Chamber on February 21, Edge revealed his choice to challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. Women's Royal Rumble match winner Bianca Belair spoke about her win and her championship choices. She
19404-450: The WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. McIntyre responded that Goldberg was not the man he used to be and that facing him would be like facing his own dad. Goldberg then taunted and shoved McIntyre, who rose to his feet and stared down Goldberg. The following week, McIntyre refuted Goldberg's claim and said that he actually did have respect but that he was going to reject Goldberg's challenge until Goldberg pushed him, prompting him to accept
19602-413: The WWE Network before it merged under Peacock. After a brief transitional period, the standalone version of the WWE Network in the U.S. shut down on April 4, with future events only available via Peacock's WWE Network channel and traditional PPV. This did not affect other countries, which maintain the separate WWE Network service distributed by WWE. In September 2021, NXT was rebranded as NXT 2.0, returning
19800-627: The WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. During the match, Ric Flair came out with Lacey Evans to distract his daughter—continuing a storyline from Raw . As Charlotte applied the Figure Eight Leglock on Baszler, Evans broke it up. The climax saw Evans perform the Women's Right on Charlotte, after which Jax performed a leg drop on her to regain the titles, thus Jax and Baszler became record-tying two-time champions, both as
19998-426: The brand to its original function as WWE's developmental territory . The NXT TakeOver series was subsequently discontinued. Vengeance Day continued on as its own event, however, with the 2022 event held as a special episode of NXT instead of airing on PPV or via livestreaming. The 2022 event in turn established Vengeance Day as NXT's annual Valentine's event. This was also the last Vengeance to air on PPV, as while
20196-434: The challenge and make the match official. McIntyre had accepted Goldberg's challenge via satellite as during that same episode, he announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19; following the standard 14-day quarantine procedure, McIntyre was cleared for the Royal Rumble, appearing live on Raw on the January 25 episode to have a final face-to-face meeting with Goldberg before their match. At TLC, Sasha Banks retained
20394-464: The championship in a rematch against O'Reilly on 6 January 2021 at NXT: New Year's Evil . He would also defend the championship against Pete Dunne and Adam Cole at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day on 14 February and on 10 March episode of NXT respectively with both times successfully defending it. At NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver on 8 April, Bálor lost the championship to Karrion Kross , ending his second reign at 212 days. Balor would face Kross in
20592-406: The championship on multiple occasions, including executing his finisher, The Bitter End , for a nearfall. He attempted to use the move a second time, only for Bálor to reverse it into a version of his own 1916 finisher, also for a nearfall. At the finish, Bálor performed a Coup de Grâce and segued it into a standard version of the 1916 to earn the pinfall and retain the championship. After
20790-447: The championship to Akira and Jyushin Thunder Liger in February, before regaining the title on 21 July. After a near three-month reign they lost the championship to No Limit ( Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro ) in October. Devitt teamed with Ryusuke Taguchi as Apollo 55 ( アポロ・ゴー・ゴー , Aporo Gō Gō ) and on 5 July 2009 at Circuit 2009 New Japan Soul they defeated The Motor City Machine Guns ( Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin ) to win
20988-534: The country with the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre promotion, as part of a working relationship between New Japan and CMLL. After being sidelined from in-ring action due to a calf injury for his first week in Mexico, Devitt made his CMLL debut on 23 March, teaming with Marco Corleone and Rush in a six-man tag team main event, where they faced Mephisto , Último Guerrero and Volador Jr. After pinning Volador Jr. for
21186-668: The end, Banks applied the Bank Statement on Carmella, forcing her to tap, thus retaining the title, to end their feud. Following the match, Bad Bunny performed his song "Booker T" with two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T himself making an appearance. After that, the 30-woman Royal Rumble match was contested. Bayley and the returning Naomi entered the match as the first and second entrants, respectively. Bianca Belair entered third, and due to their ongoing rivalry from SmackDown , Belair immediately attempted to eliminate Bayley, who avoided being eliminated. Instead of participating in
21384-494: The end. On January 29, a triple threat match between Storm, Martinez, and Shirai for the title was scheduled for Vengeance Day. On the December 16 episode of NXT , during a tag team match, NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano shoved Kushida off the apron, causing Gargano's team to win. At NXT : New Year's Evil on January 6, 2021, Kushida pinned Gargano in a tag team match. The following week, after Gargano won his match, Gargano attacked his opponent until Kushida made
21582-553: The event was "Obey" by Bring Me the Horizon featuring Yungblud . As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March 2020, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. NXT's programming was initially held at NXT's home base of Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida . In October 2020, NXT's events were moved to
21780-504: The final day costing them a spot in the semifinals. On 4 January 2014 at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome , Devitt's fourteen-month reign as the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion came to an end when he lost the title to Kota Ibushi in his fifth defense. Devitt wrestled the entire match in a full face and body paint, which he continued using for his bigger matches for the rest of his NJPW run. The following day, Devitt
21978-404: The finals to win the tournament and earn a shot at Naomichi Marufuji's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . On 19 June at Dominion 6.19 , Devitt defeated Marufuji to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Eleven days later, Devitt, Taguchi and Hirooki Goto won the J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi , TAJIRI and Kushida in
22176-401: The finals. Devitt made his first successful Junior Heavyweight Championship title defense on 11 July, defeating Pro Wrestling Noah's Atsushi Aoki. Just over a week later, on 19 July, Devitt and Taguchi defeated Koji Kanemoto and El Samurai to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the second time as a team. In August Devitt entered New Japan's biggest tournament of the year,
22374-432: The first co-winner of the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Samoa Joe . Shortly after arriving on the main roster , Bálor became the first wrestler in WWE history to win a world title in their pay-per-view debut, the second ever Irish world champion in WWE (after Sheamus ) as well as becoming the quickest wrestler in WWE history to win a world title at 27 days following his main roster debut by becoming
22572-564: The first round, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady in the quarter-finals, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson in the semi-finals and Baron Corbin and Rhyno in the finals on 7 October at NXT TakeOver: Respect to win the tournament. On 4 November episode of NXT , Bálor defended the NXT Championship against Apollo Crews , but the match ended in a no contest after Baron Corbin interfered, attacking both men. Joe came out and chased Corbin away before turning on Bálor and attacking him, which ignited
22770-437: The first time in an Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay–per–view on 25 February, where he entered last but was the second participant eliminated by Braun Strowman . Over the next two months, Bálor started a short feud with The Miz and Seth Rollins over the Intercontinental Championship, which led to a triple threat match at WrestleMania 34 on 8 April (which was also Bálor's Wrestlemania debut) where Rollins won
22968-490: The first wrestler to win a Royal Rumble match after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Additionally, this was only the third time that the first and second entrants lasted the entire match and finished as the final two (last occurring in 1995 and 1999 ). The following night on Raw , WWE Champion Drew McIntyre opened the show and stated that Goldberg had earned his respect and he had also earned Goldberg's respect. McIntyre
23166-445: The former members of Apollo 55 took place on 3 May at Wrestling Dontaku 2013 , where Devitt and Fale defeated Taguchi and Captain New Japan in a tag team match. Later in the event, Devitt and Fale were joined by Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga for an attack on Hiroshi Tanahashi. The new group was subsequently named " Bullet Club ". On 24 May, Devitt entered the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors , where he ended up winning his block with
23364-642: The group and cementing Bálor's heel turn. Bálor and Priest lost to The Mysterios ( Rey and Dominik Mysterio ) on 30 July at SummerSlam and at Clash at the Castle on 3 September, they lost to Rey and Edge, where Dominik turned heel on both of them to join The Judgment Day. At Extreme Rules on 8 October, Bálor defeated Edge in an "I Quit" match following interference from The Judgment Day. On 5 November at Crown Jewel , Bálor, Priest, and Dominik defeated The O.C. (Styles, Luke Gallows , and Karl Anderson ) in
23562-416: The group in the past tense, suggesting it had finally become defunct. MSK and the team of Dakota Kai and Raquel González were presented with the trophy for winning their respective Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournaments later on February 17. It was originally announced that their respective tag team championship opportunities would both occur on March 3, though Wes Lee was later discovered to have sustained
23760-450: The group. The following week, Bálor and McDonagh failed to win the titles after Braun Strowman prevented Carlito from interfering. On 24 June episode of Raw, Bálor and McDonagh defeated Miz and Truth to win the titles after interference from Ripley's former rival, Liv Morgan. At SummerSlam on 3 August, Bálor turned on Priest, costing him his World Heavyweight Championship against Gunther . After several brawls and altercations between
23958-497: The hold. Gargano then hit One Final Beat twice - first from the inside of the ring to the entrance ramp, and secondly from the ramp to the inside of the ring, successfully securing the victory and retaining the championship. MSK , the team of Nash Carter and Wes Lee , then faced the Grizzled Young Veterans , the team of James Drake and Zack Gibson , in the finals of the men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. The match
24156-533: The inaugural WWE Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016 . Bálor is also a two-time Intercontinental Champion and a one-time United States Champion . Bálor became a Grand Slam Champion on September 2, 2023, at Payback , winning the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, and is an overall five-time Tag Team Champion in WWE. Fergal Devitt was born on 25 July 1981 in Bray, County Wicklow ,
24354-524: The inaugural Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Vengeance Day also marked the WWE return of LA Knight , who previously performed as Slate Randall from 2013 to 2014 and was known as Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling. TakeOver was a series of professional wrestling shows that began in May 2014, as WWE 's NXT brand held their second WWE Network -exclusive event, billed as TakeOver . In subsequent months,
24552-454: The injury, he returned to action, showing great improvement and was touted by fellow CTU teammate, Minoru , as the future winner of the 2007 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. However, when the tournament was held in June 2007, Devitt scored no points and was eliminated early from the competition. Following the folding of CTU in August 2007, Devitt and Minoru joined the new RISE stable, forming
24750-463: The latter's title defense against Matt Riddle and officially announced his return to NXT (as it had grown from a developmental territory in Bálor's first stint into a third global brand within WWE). On 23 October episode of NXT , Bálor turned heel when he aided The Undisputed Era by injuring Johnny Gargano and attacking Tommaso Ciampa . Bálor began a feud with Matt Riddle the next month leading to
24948-408: The man who had pinned him for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, Davey Richards, in his second defense on 4 December. On 23 December, Devitt defeated the other half of No Remorse Corps, Rocky Romero, to make his third IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship defense. On 4 January 2012 at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome , Devitt and Taguchi defeated Richards and Romero to once again regain
25146-445: The match and performed an RKO on Edge. Orton then attempted to eliminate Edge, however he countered and eliminated Orton 11 years to the day of his first Rumble match victory , and earning himself a world championship match at WrestleMania 37. Edge became the eighth wrestler to win the Royal Rumble match twice, the third wrestler to win the match as the number one entrant (after Shawn Michaels in 1995 and Chris Benoit in 2004 ), and
25344-427: The match was originally tested at a house show in October 1987 before making its televised debut at the inaugural Royal Rumble event in 1988. Patterson died on December 2, 2020, at the age of 79, which made the 2021 event the first Royal Rumble held following his death. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March 2020, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from
25542-403: The match, Billie Kay (#4) would join the ringside announcers for commentary. Kay attempted to team up with the next three entrants, Shotzi Blackheart (#5), Shayna Baszler (#6), and Toni Storm (#7), to take on the other participants in the match, however they all brushed her off. Kay eventually teamed up with guest entrant and former WWE wrestler Jillian Hall (#8) and Kay officially entered
25740-422: The match, Dunne's stablemates (and NXT Tag Team Champions ) Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan rushed the ring and assaulted Bálor, who had little capacity to fight back after a grueling championship bout. After a few moments, The Undisputed Era (represented by Adam Cole , Roderick Strong , and Bálor's recent rival Kyle O'Reilly ) ran in to fend them off. As Cole and Strong stared Dunne, Burch, and Lorcan away from
25938-560: The match, he eventually tagged in Lee and the two performed some double-team maneuvers of their own, including an aided standing moonsault where Carter jumped clean over a crouching Drake to land on Gibson. The finish came when the Veterans attempted to perform their Ticket to Mayhem tandem finisher on Carter, only for Lee to break it up. He then tagged himself into the match and MSK performed an elevated corkscrew blockbuster onto Drake, this move earning
26136-470: The match, however she eventually turned on Hall and eliminated her. Shortly thereafter, Kay was also eliminated. Midway through the match, Lacey Evans (#18) entered, accompanied by Ric Flair, while wearing his signature robe in an attempt to taunt Charlotte Flair (#15). Immediately after former WWE wrestler Alicia Fox (#21) entered, 24/7 Champion R-Truth ran to the ring. Several other male 24/7 Title challengers appeared and ran after Truth, who then ran into
26334-561: The match, the two showed mutual respect, gesturing the "Too Sweet" hand symbol to each other. At the Survivor Series event on 19 November, Bálor took part in the traditional inter-brand five–on–five elimination match as part of Team Raw where he was the fifth man eliminated by Randy Orton , although his team was ultimately victorious. On 1 January 2018 episode of Raw , Bálor teamed with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson to defeat Elias and The Miztourage ( Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas ) in
26532-401: The match, which eventually led to them turning on him. In the end, Taguchi defeated Devitt, after which the two men shook hands, ending their rivalry with each other. The following day, New Japan announced Devitt's resignation from the promotion. On 15 May 2014, Devitt was reported to have signed with WWE and would join NXT , then the promotion's developmental territory , once he obtained
26730-509: The match. The event comprised six matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes , villains , or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown . On
26928-416: The men and women could choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 37 ; the men could choose Raw's WWE Championship , SmackDown's Universal Championship , or the NXT Championship , while the women could choose the Raw Women's Championship , SmackDown Women's Championship , or NXT Women's Championship . The Royal Rumble match was created by WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson , and
27126-506: The new Judgment Day (now consisting of Balor, Mysterio, Morgan, McDonagh and Carlito) and the Terror Twins (Priest and Ripley), a match between Bálor and Priest was set for Bad Blood on 5 October, which Bálor lost despite interference from Carlito and McDonagh. After working under his real name, Devitt changed his ring name to Prince Devitt when he went to New Japan Pro-Wrestling because nobody Japanese could pronounce his actual name. He
27324-493: The next few weeks, Miz and Morrison continued to constantly taunt Bad Bunny. On the March 22 episode of Raw , Miz challenged Bad Bunny to a match at WrestleMania 37. After Miz's match, Bad Bunny attacked Miz and accepted. However, after Miz and Morrison vandalized Bad Bunny's US$ 3 million Bugatti and attacked Bad Bunny on the April 5 episode, the stipulation of the match was changed as Priest and Bad Bunny challenged Miz and Morrison to
27522-550: The night's main event against Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, and Oney Lorcan, a match they lost after further sneak attacks by Cole. The following week, Cole appeared to express remorse for his actions and a desire to reconcile with Strong, only to low blow him and rip Strong's Undisputed Era dog tags from his neck, cementing his heel turn and split from what remained of the group. For his match with Bálor on March 3, Strong made his ring entrance to different music and without any Undisputed Era logos or colors on his gear. For his own match with
27720-443: The penultimate match, Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) defended the Universal Championship against Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match. At the start of the match, Reigns performed a Superman Punch on Owens only for Owens to rise to his feet. Owens countered a Spear from Reigns into a Pop-up Powerbomb, however Reigns rose to his feet at the 4 count. Midway, the two fought at ringside where Reigns viciously attacked Owens with
27918-542: The pinfall to make them tournament champions and earn a future match for the NXT Tag Team Championship . The triple threat match for the NXT Women's Championship followed, champion Io Shirai defending against Mercedes Martinez and Toni Storm. Martinez was the aggressor early in the match, beginning her assault on her opponents before ring introductions were even made. The match kept a high pace throughout, and all three women hit their finishers. Shirai also executed
28116-421: The pinfall, thus Pearce won the match. The following week, Heyman confronted Pearce backstage and gave him the match contract to sign. The stipulation for their match was originally a no disqualification match ; after Heyman gave the signed contract to Reigns, however Reigns wanted the stipulation changed to a Last Man Standing match . Later in the ring, Pearce and Reigns signed the amended contract, but as Pearce
28314-491: The possibility that Edge may choose the NXT Championship. The 2021 Royal Rumble was the last Royal Rumble in which three championships were an option for the Royal Rumble winner, as well as the last Royal Rumble in which the NXT Championship and NXT Women's Championship were an option for that winner, as in September 2021, the NXT brand was rebranded as "NXT 2.0" and reverted to being WWE's developmental territory . On Friday's SmackDown , Universal Champion Roman Reigns opened
28512-600: The reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, the Forever Hooligans ( Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero), to advance to the finals of the tournament, where, later that same day, they were defeated by the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida). On 11 November at Power Struggle , Devitt defeated Low Ki to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the third time. On 4 January 2013 at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome , Devitt defeated Low Ki and Kota Ibushi in
28710-614: The returning Randy Orton in a losing effort. On 18 December episode of Raw, Bálor and Priest successfully defended their titles against the Creed Brothers . At the Royal Rumble on 27 January, Bálor entered the Royal Rumble match at #14, eliminating Carmelo Hayes alongside Dominik before being eliminated by Bron Breakker . On the following episode of Raw, Bálor and Priest defeated DIY ( Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa ) to retain their titles. At Elimination Chamber: Perth on 24 February, Bálor and Priest successfully defended
28908-459: The returning Sami Zayn in an impromptu title defense. On 15 April episode of Raw , he lost a non-title match to the debuting Andrade after interference from Zelina Vega . In the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up , Bálor moved to the SmackDown brand, making his debut on 16 April episode of SmackDown , defeating Ali in a non-title match. At Super ShowDown on 7 June, Balor successfully defended his title against Andrade under his "Demon" persona. At
29106-487: The ring and Strong standing in the ring next to the fallen Bálor and O'Reilly, looking back and forth between the two sides. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter was highly positive toward each of the event's matches, giving 4 stars to the women's tag team match, 4.75 stars to the NXT North American Championship match, 4.5 stars to the men's tag team match, 3.75 stars to
29304-440: The ring under the bottom rope. Edge followed Orton soon after and the two continued to brawl at ringside. In his first appearance since 2010, Carlito made a surprise return at #8, however he was eliminated by Elias (#13). NXT's Damian Priest (#14) then eliminated Elias. It was then shown that medical personnel tended to Orton backstage and Edge returned to the match soon after. Due to Bad Bunny rejecting The Miz 's offer in
29502-402: The ring, O'Reilly helped Bálor to his feet and it appeared the show would conclude with the four of them standing in the ring together. Cole then turned heel by executing a superkick on Bálor, the champion immediately falling to the mat. As O'Reilly began to protest, Cole superkicked him as well, leaving him prone as well, then left the ring. The show went off the air with Cole storming away from
29700-460: The ring, Sheamus performed a Brogue Kick on McIntyre, sending a direct message that he was no longer McIntyre's friend and wanted the WWE Championship. The following week, McIntyre was scheduled to defend the WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber , also involving Sheamus and four other former WWE Champions, while Edge said he would wait until after that event to make his decision. Unsatisfied with Edge's victory in
29898-441: The ring, she attacked Reginald, accidentally dropping Carmella, thus causing her elimination inadvertently. Rhea Ripley (#14) then eliminated Alexa Bliss (#27) before Bliss could transform into her alter-ego Fiend-esque persona (due to her alignment with "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt ). The final four were Flair, Ripley, Belair, and Natalya , who earned the #30 spot by defeating Tamina the previous day on WWE Backstage . After Natalya
30096-482: The ring, the match officially began. McIntyre performed a Claymore Kick on Goldberg for a nearfall. As McIntyre attempted a second Claymore Kick, Goldberg dodged it and performed two more Spears for a nearfall. Then, Goldberg performed a Jackhammer on McIntyre for a nearfall. As Goldberg attempted a fourth Spear, McIntyre dodged it and performed a second Claymore Kick for a pinfall, retaining the WWE Championship. Aftermath, Goldberg rose to his feet and endorsed McIntyre with
30294-399: The ring. As Truth fended them off, Fox pinned Truth to win the 24/7 Championship. Mandy Rose (#22) then eliminated Fox, after which Truth pinned Fox outside the ring to regain the title. As Carmella (#24 – accompanied by Reginald) entered, Nikki Cross (#20) attempted to eliminate Carmella, however Reginald caught Carmella, thus saving her from elimination. As Tamina (#25) made her way to
30492-441: The round-robin stage of the tournament. On 10 June, Devitt was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by his own tag team partner, Ryusuke Taguchi. On 18 June at Dominion 6.18 , Devitt lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Best of the Super Juniors winner, Kota Ibushi, ending his reign at 364 days. On 23 June, Devitt, Taguchi and Hirooki Goto won their second J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament in
30690-422: The runner-ups, Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon, setting up a title match between the two teams later that night, where Moon and Blackheart were victorious, ending Kai and González's reign at 56 minutes, the shortest reign in the title's history. MSK's title shot would later be rescheduled for Night 1 of TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. Toni Storm was also shown to have disrupted a photo shoot for Io Shirai, attacking
30888-519: The save. Kushida then stated that he would be coming for the NXT North American Championship. On the January 20 episode, Kushida pinned Gargano in a first round match of the 2021 Men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Two weeks later, Gargano and Kushida brawled backstage, and a title match between the two was scheduled for Vengeance Day. The pay-per-view opened with the finals of the first-ever women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic between
31086-567: The semifinals by Low Ki. On 8 July, Devitt defeated Taichi to make his first successful defense of the NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship. His second successful title defense took place on 29 July, when he defeated previous champion Volador Jr. in a rematch in the main event of a New Japan event in Korakuen Hall . On 12 September, Devitt returned to Mexico for another tour with CMLL. Devitt wrestled his first match back in CMLL two days later at
31284-539: The show, accompanied by Paul Heyman and Jey Uso. He stated that he kept his word in that he would defeat Kevin Owens. He then turned his attention to men's Royal Rumble winner Edge, assuming that Edge would choose to challenge him at WrestleMania 37. Reigns called out Edge, who had not arrived at the arena yet. Reigns then demanded that Edge reveal his decision before the end of the night. Later that night, Edge came out and questioned himself on who he should challenge, either WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, NXT Champion Finn Bálor, or
31482-616: The son of Leonie and Fintan Devitt. He has one older sibling and three younger siblings. He attended St. Cronan's School in Bray. Before deciding to become a professional wrestler, he played association football and Gaelic football . While growing up, he enjoyed watching World of Sport and WWF (now WWE ) shows and was a fan of The British Bulldogs , Shawn Michaels , Mr. Perfect , Rick Rude , Savio Vega , and Koko B. Ware . After training at NWA UK Hammerlock, Devitt made his professional wrestling debut on 23 November 2001. He quickly won
31680-473: The special " Legends Night " episode of Raw on January 4, WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg , in his first appearance since WrestleMania 36 in 2020, appeared to confront McIntyre. After Goldberg praised McIntyre's work and abilities, he stated that McIntyre did not have respect, claiming that McIntyre viewed the legends as being "washed up" and that McIntyre felt he was better than any of them when they were in their prime. Goldberg then formally challenged McIntyre for
31878-497: The stable, Devitt teamed with CTU leader, Jushin Thunder Liger to take on Wataru Inoue and Ryusuke Taguchi . In a huge twist, Devitt was the one to make the final cover on Inoue following a stiff brainbuster. From then on he was officially recognized as a member of the CTU. His momentum was halted in January 2007, when he suffered a serious knee injury, sidelining him from in-ring action in New Japan until early May of that year. Following
32076-522: The steel steps. Reigns then threw Owens through an announce table from the LED boards of the ThunderDome arena. Owens and Reigns fought backstage where Reigns drove a golf cart into Owens. Owens then performed a Senton Bomb on Reigns off a forklift through a table. In the end, Owens handcuffed Reigns to a lighting trellis. Unable to get to his feet and avoid losing, Reigns incapacitated the referee by shoving him into
32274-522: The team of Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart and the team of Dakota Kai and Raquel González . The match was fast-paced and largely competitive throughout; only Kai was isolated by the opposing tag team for any prolonged stretch, though she was eventually able to tag in González. Kai hit the Kai-Ro-Practor for a nearfall, as did Blackheart with her signature finishing senton. Kai and González also utilized
32472-513: The title. At the Greatest Royal Rumble event on 27 April, Bálor once again unsuccessfully challenged for the Intercontinental Championship in a fatal four–way ladder match against Rollins, Miz and Samoa Joe. Bálor competed in a Money in the Bank ladder match on 17 June, however, the match was ultimately won by Braun Strowman . After the Money in the Bank pay–per–view, Bálor engaged in
32670-592: The titles against New Catch Republic ( Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate ). At Night 1 of WrestleMania XL on 6 April, Bálor and Priest lost the SmackDown Tag Team Championship to A-Town Down Under ( Austin Theory and Grayson Waller ) and the Raw Tag Team Championship to The Awesome Truth ( The Miz and R-Truth) respectively in a six-pack tag team ladder match , ending their second reign with
32868-481: The tournament champions and recipients of a future opportunity at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship . Next came the NXT North American Championship match, with the champion Johnny Gargano defending against Kushida. Kushida held the offensive advantage for the majority of the match, targeting Gargano's left arm. This both set up Kushida's Hoverboard Lock finisher and impaired the left-handed Gargano from executing normal offence like punches and chops. Gargano in turn
33066-418: The trellis. Heyman then appeared and successfully freed Reigns from the cuffs (after the second referee stopped his count for no reason provided). Reigns then applied the guillotine choke on Owens, incapacitating him and preventing Owens from rising to his feet by the count of 10, thus Reigns retained the title. In the main event, the 30-man Royal Rumble match was contested. Hall of Famer Edge , returning from
33264-435: The two took place on 20 July and saw Okada defeat Devitt, despite interference from the rest of Bullet Club, to retain his title. On 1 August, Devitt defeated Okada, with help from Fale, in the main event of the first day of the 2013 G1 Climax . Despite three other big wins over former IWGP Heavyweight Champions Hiroshi Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima , and Togi Makabe , Devitt failed to advance from his block, finishing with
33462-584: The undisputed titles at 173 days. As Priest won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XL, Bálor would begin teaming with McDonagh. They helped Priest retain his title against Jey Uso on 4 May at Backlash France despite Priest asking them not to interfere. On 13 May episode of Raw, Bálor and McDonagh won a fatal four-way match to become the #1 contenders to Awesome Truth's newly renamed World Tag Team Championship after interference from Carlito , who began inserting himself into
33660-452: The vacant NXT Championship for the second time. At NXT TakeOver 31 on 4 October, Bálor made a successful title defense against Kyle O'Reilly . It was revealed he had suffered a broken jaw during the match and was forced to undergo surgery. Bálor made his return on 9 December episode of NXT where he was confronted by O'Reilly, Pete Dunne , Damian Priest and Scarlett (on behalf of Karrion Kross ). Balor would then successfully defend
33858-407: The weeks leading up to SummerSlam , Bálor began a feud with Elias after he inadvertently interrupted one of his performances. This led to a No Disqualification match between the two, which Bálor lost after interference from Bray Wyatt. This led to a match between the two, where Wyatt defeated Bálor. At SummerSlam on 20 August, Bálor returned his "Demon King" character and defeated Wyatt in
34056-493: The win, Devitt challenged him to a match for the NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship . On 30 March, Devitt defeated Volador Jr. to become the new NWA World Historic Middleweight Champion. On 3 May at Wrestling Dontaku 2012 , Devitt lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Low Ki in his fifth defense, ending his second reign at 227 days. On 27 May, Devitt entered the 2012 Best of
34254-508: The women's triple threat, and 4.5 stars to the main event. The event also received a 10.0 "Virtually Perfect" rating from Kevin Pantoja of 411Mania . Kyle O'Reilly opened the following episode of NXT , demanding an explanation from Adam Cole. Roderick Strong emerged, trying to play peacemaker, which O'Reilly didn't accept. Finn Bálor also appeared in this segment, blaming O'Reilly for Cole's attack on him. The three were forced into partnership in
34452-437: Was able to pull some strings and that Pearce would also be competing in the gauntlet match along with Rey Mysterio , Sami Zayn , Shinsuke Nakamura , King Corbin , and Daniel Bryan . Nakamura survived the gauntlet to face final entrant Pearce; however, before the final round began, Reigns' cousin, Jey Uso , taunted Nakamura, which led to Reigns and Jey attacking both Nakamura and Pearce. Jey placed Pearce on top of Nakamura for
34650-526: Was able work over Kushida's head and neck to set up his own finisher, the One Final Beat . In the finishing sequence, Kushida hit a running kick to Gargano's arm while the two were on the entrance ramp (which, in contrast to most WWE events, was level with the ring apron) and locked in the Hoverboard Lock in the ring. Gargano managed to stand and entangle Kushida's neck in the ropes, forcing him to release
34848-440: Was attacked by the returning Ryusuke Taguchi, who had been sidelined with an injury for the past seven months, re-igniting the rivalry between the two former partners. On 6 April at Invasion Attack 2014 , one year after the break-up of Apollo 55, Devitt faced Taguchi in a singles grudge match. During the match, Devitt repeatedly told The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), the two newest members of Bullet Club, not to interfere in
35046-580: Was defeated. As part of the 2021 Draft , Bálor was drafted to the Raw brand , where he participated in the King of the Ring tournament, being defeated in the finals by Xavier Woods on 21 October at Crown Jewel . On 28 February 2022 episode of Raw , Bálor defeated Damian Priest to win the WWE United States Championship for the first time in his career. On 18 April episode of Raw , Bálor lost
35244-400: Was drafted to the Raw brand as the fifth overall pick in the 2016 WWE draft , later declaring that he should have been the first pick. He made his first appearance for the brand on 25 July episode of Raw (on his 35th birthday), where he won the right to compete for the newly established WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam by first defeating Rusev , Cesaro , and Kevin Owens in
35442-467: Was expected that Bálor would be out four to six months, thus Raw General Manager Mick Foley later announced on Twitter that Bálor would be relinquishing his newly won WWE Universal Championship due to his injury after just 22 hours of holding it. While recovering from his injury, Bálor would appear on the WWE Network –exclusive United Kingdom Championship Tournament event. On 22 February 2017, Bálor returned to NXT to assist Shinsuke Nakamura , who
35640-495: Was fast-paced and full of innovative spots, including the Veterans performing a version of the Road Warriors ' Doomsday Device outside the ring as Gibson held Carter on his shoulders as Drake dove through the ropes to perform a clothesline and knock him down. Drake also performed a 450 splash, noted as a maneuver not often utilized by the "no nonsense" team, for a nearfall. Though the Veterans isolated Carter for large portions of
35838-427: Was interrupted by Carmella's sommelier, Reginald, who claimed that Belair could not defeat SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks, as she could not beat Carmella either, who then made her entrance and boasted about how she had defeated Banks in the past and that she could also defeat Belair if she chose to face Banks, who then came out and told Carmella that they were done. Banks then complimented Belair, but stated Belair
36036-547: Was later said to be part of Raw, marking his second overall Royal Rumble win after last winning it in 2010 , thus becoming the eighth two-time winner, the third wrestler to win it as the number one entrant, the fifth wrestler to win it as one of the two starting wrestlers, and the first wrestler to win it after his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame . The women's Royal Rumble match was won by SmackDown's Bianca Belair . In other prominent matches, Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens in
36234-475: Was leaving, he feigned a knee injury, citing that the contract allowed him to choose a replacement for himself in the event of an injury and chose Kevin Owens , who Reigns defeated at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a TLC match thanks to interference from Jey. Owens then made his entrance and signed the contract to become Reigns' opponent for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. Following Drew McIntyre 's successful WWE Championship defense during
36432-496: Was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans. After being hosted at Orlando's Amway Center , the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida in December. In November 2020, it
36630-419: Was not the best as she did not have the SmackDown Women's Championship. Reginald interrupted and stated that Belair would be better off choosing to face Raw Women's Champion Asuka as she would lose to Banks, after which Belair attacked Reginald as Banks and Carmella watched on. After weeks of discussing her three options, Belair decided on the February 26 episode of SmackDown that she would challenge Banks for
36828-434: Was not worth doing for just one night. Several wrestlers were also pulled from the event due to COVID-19 concerns. Retribution 's Reckoning was originally booked to appear in the Women's Royal Rumble match, however she tested positive for the virus and was replaced by Toni Storm . Keith Lee and Robert Roode were reportedly planned to be in the men's match, but were pulled, as was Jey Uso , who had been advertised for
37026-406: Was once again defeated in the finals of the tournament, this time by Naomichi Marufuji . On 4 January 2010, at Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome , Devitt and Taguchi successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Averno and Último Guerrero . On 21 April, Devitt and Taguchi were stripped of the title, after not defending them for 30 days. On 8 May, the two entered
37224-497: Was originally going to be called King David until people started questioning why the 24-year-old would be a king already. Eventually, Simon Inoki came up with the name Prince Devitt, which Devitt himself also preferred. During his time in Japan, Devitt started to use body paint during some matches. When he signed with WWE, Devitt worked under two characters: Finn Bálor (named after the legendary Irish hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and Balor of
37422-418: Was outnumbered by Andrade "Cien" Almas and Bobby Roode. On 10 March, Bálor made his in–ring return at a live event in a six–man tag team match, teaming with Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn to defeat Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Triple H . Bálor made his television return after WrestleMania 33 on 3 April episode of Raw , where he teamed with his former rival Seth Rollins as the two defeated Owens and Joe in
37620-402: Was quickly eliminated, Belair and Ripley teamed together and eliminated Flair. In the end, after a back-and-forth battle, Belair eliminated Ripley to win the match and earn herself a women's championship match at WrestleMania 37. Belair also became the second wrestler to win the match as the third entrant, after Ric Flair in 1992 . Following the match, an emotional Belair celebrated her win. In
37818-410: Was reported that WWE were looking to host the 2021 Royal Rumble at a venue that could have live fans in attendance, as the promotion wanted fans for the event, even if it was just for this one show. However, the ongoing pandemic put a stop to those plans, and while dismantling the ThunderDome to have live fans in attendance at Tropicana Field was possible, WWE decided that the massive undertaking to do so
38016-439: Was scheduled to have a match against Velveteen Dream , but Bálor was knocked out by an unknown attacker before he could leave his dressing room. Two weeks later, Bálor concluded that there was a "snake hiding in the long grass back there" and that whoever attacked him wanted a push. Bálor assured the audience that it won't be a push, but rather a squash. Later that night, he got into an altercation with Cameron Grimes , leading to
38214-408: Was the first Royal Rumble event held since the death of Pat Patterson , who created the Royal Rumble match . This is the only Royal Rumble event to not have live fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Traditionally, the Royal Rumble match winner receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania . For the 2021 event, the winners of both the men's and women's matches received
38412-520: Was the very first women's match to be held on 205 Live . Finn B%C3%A1lor Fergal Devitt (born 25 July 1981) is an Irish professional wrestler . As of May 2014, he is signed to WWE , where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Finn Bálor ( / ˈ b æ l ər / ). He is a member of The Judgment Day stable and is one-half of the World Tag Team Champions with stablemate JD McDonagh in their first reign as
38610-417: Was then eliminated by Priest. Later in the match, Christian (#24) made his surprise return to in-ring action, his first official match since 2014. After entering the ring and reuniting with Edge , the two embraced. Seth Rollins (#29) then made a surprise return from his two-month hiatus, followed by Braun Strowman (#30), who had made an appearance at the end of the previous episode of SmackDown following
38808-444: Was then interrupted by men's Royal Rumble winner Edge. McIntyre complimented Edge, however Edge took issue as he thought that McIntyre would be more aggressive. After Edge teased that he would choose McIntyre as his opponent at WrestleMania 37, McIntyre's friend Sheamus came out, stating that he was not as nice as his friend. McIntyre then asked Edge about his decision and Edge stated he would reveal his choice in due time. After Edge left
39006-457: Was to become a WWE wrestler, which Miz claimed he could help him with as a mentor (referencing when he was a mentor to Daniel Bryan in 2010 ), however Bad Bunny rejected the offer. Bad Bunny then stated the only reason he was there was because his "friend" wanted to be on Miz TV, prompting Damian Priest to come out, making his Raw debut. Priest then came out and attacked Miz. A match between Priest and Miz ensued where Priest emerged victorious. Over
39204-683: Was unsuccessful. After defeating Tyler Breeze on 20 May at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable , Bálor received another title shot against Owens on 4 July at The Beast in the East in Tokyo , Japan , defeating Owens to win the NXT Championship. Bálor defeated Owens in a ladder match to retain the title at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn on 22 August. Bálor later entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament in August, pairing with Samoa Joe and defeating The Lucha Dragons ( Sin Cara and Kalisto ) in
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