Finn Balor practically vanished from WWE programming after he lost to Austin Theory on the January 17 episode of WWE RAW. Despite some buzz that he might return in the Royal Rumble bout as a surprise entrant, the battle royal came and went without any sight of “The Prince”. Balor’s absence continued for the next several weeks, leading fans to wonder why Balor was missing.
In an interview with BT Sport WWE, the former WWE Universal Champion explained that he needed to renew his visa, and he had to return home to Ireland in order to do so.
“I haven’t spoken about this, but I didn’t want to take any time off,” said Balor. “I didn’t want to miss any shows. I didn’t need any time off. I wasn’t injured. I didn’t need a rest. Legally, my visa needed to be renewed. I needed to go home to Ireland and go to the US Embassy and get my visa. And that’s why I wasn’t at the Royal Rumble, and that’s why I wasn’t there for a month. And everyone’s asking questions, Finn’s not here, Finn’s not there.
“It was strictly a legal paperwork issue that had to be rectified and it had kind of been pushed and pushed and pushed through COVID because we couldn’t travel and it was kind of like a window opening and we said look, I know I have to do it eventually. Let’s just do it now, and that’s what happened. So the time off was taken reluctantly in January to take care of that paperwork. But thank god it’s all taken care of for the next ten years.”
A BT Sport exclusive…
"I didn't want to take any time off. I wasn't injured…"
So why did @FinnBalor miss January and the Royal Rumble? ? pic.twitter.com/P72OJvB8Oi
— WWE on TNT Sports (@wweontnt) March 16, 2022
“The Prince” returned on the February 21 episode of WWE RAW, where he teamed up with Tommaso Ciampa to defeat The Dirty Dawgs. The following week, Balor defeated Damian Priest to win the WWE United States Championship.
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