Finn Balor's Championship Win over Kevin Owens Is Good for NXT

Kevin Owens has been the most interesting and notorious NXT champion in history.

No other NXT champion has appeared so frequently across all WWE programming with the title, let alone feud with WWE’s top star.

The juxtaposition between Owens trolling top NXT stars while wrestling instant classics against John Cena was jarring. Eventually, he became bigger than the developmental brand.

As I mentioned on the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast, Owens’ transition to the main roster is complete. At this point, his NXT duties are just an added bonus.

So it was only fitting that losing the NXT Championship came during an unprecedented special event in a match that elevated NXT.

There was a certain ceremony to Finn Balor returning to Japan to capture his first NXT Championship that would have felt like a waste had Owens retained. There’s nothing left to accomplish in NXT for Owens.

His brief, yet effective, stint saw him feud with Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, Alex Riley, Hideo Itami (kind of) and now Balor. Any further activity in NXT would seem unnecessary.

But after multiple weeks of documenting Balor’s evolution from New Japan Pro Wrestling prospect to NXT's red-hot rookie, Balor’s win over Owens feels like a next step forward.

NXT’s weekly mini-documentaries on Balor chronologically showcased different aspects of his career. This is just the latest chapter.

Meanwhile, Owens has become synonymous with the WWE main roster. If the emerging WWE Superstar defeated an NXT talent, the promotion would come off as minor league.

The NXT Championship was presented as different from every match. The rose presentation and streamers put it on par with any major WWE championship.

With NXT mainstay Balor as champion, the title can only continue to gain momentum as long as the the promotion continues to take care of it.

Balor defeated the fastest-rising talent on either roster, sending a similar message to that of Owens’ victory over Cena in his first WWE match.

The message? NXT is every bit as competitive as WWE.

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @ThisIsNasty and subscribe to his weekly wrestling podcast.

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