Finn Balor: Doing The LGBTQ Theme At WrestleMania 34 Was Bigger Than The Demon

Balor Club was for everyone at WrestleMania 34 and remains that way to this day.

As Finn Balor entered into his first WrestleMania in New Orleans, many expected him to bring back The Demon for his Intercontinental Championship bout. Balor had other ideas, wanting to promote the LGBTQ community with his entrance and gear.

Speaking to Dan Matha on Spark in the Dark, Balor discussed the decision to surprise fans at WrestleMania.

“We have such a huge platform in WWE. To waste that opportunity and not use it for some good — we’re very restrictive in what we can do because it’s a wrestling company and entertainment and we’re giving people a product to consume, we’re very limited in what we can change, but the color scheme is something I could definitely change. We were coming to WrestleMania, my first WrestleMania, everyone was talking about doing The Demon. ‘You have to do The Demon, everyone has to see the entrance in the stadium with the big stage and lights and fireworks.’ I came up with the idea that I feel like the gay community is not represented in wrestling at all. At that point, it was not spoken about. I have a lot of friends in the community and there are wrestlers in the community and maybe there was something that happened where people were reluctant to be open about. For me, I didn’t really have anything to lose in the sense that I’m a straight guy and I’m not going to be judged.”

Balor continued by saying, “I brought the idea to WWE, they were super on-board. As soon as Stephanie [McMahon] heard about it, she was on-board, pulled all the strings to get it done and over the line. They got the shirts made on short notice. Instead of the Demon, we went with the LGBTQ. Everyone was expecting the Demon, but when it wasn’t the Demon, they weren’t let down, I feel like it was bigger than the Demon and it was a bigger message and so much more real in the sense of touching people. It wasn’t entertainment, it was a message of positivity. People talk about, ‘what are you proud of in your career?’ That trumps titles and any kind of match.”

Balor went on to say that he didn’t realize how many people would be touched by the gesture.

Balor is set to compete at NXT TakeOver XXX when he battles Timothy Thatcher.

Fightful will have live coverage of NXT TakeOver XXX beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.