Finn Balor, Becky Lynch and the Future of WWE's Irish Stars
Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is the holiday when you will see everything Irish-themed, from clovers and leprechauns to massive amounts of green, white and orange.
Coinciding with that, it's the perfect time to put the spotlight on the active WWE Superstars who are of Irish descent, if only to be festive.
While Ireland does not have as deep of a tie to professional wrestling as somewhere like Canada, Japan or Mexico, there have still been wrestlers from the Emerald Isle who have made their marks.
One of the more famous Irish stars of the past is former women's champion Velvet McIntyre, but if we allow for storylines to factor in, even Hornswoggle is someone worth bringing up in the discussion.
There are four Superstars in WWE who hail from Ireland: Becky Lynch, Finn Balor, Sheamus and Killian Dain, with the former three coming from the Republic of Ireland and the latter being from Northern Ireland.
They have all had wildly different careers in WWE yet made impressions just the same.
But what does the future have in store for them in 2018 and beyond?
Let's gaze into our crystal ball and try to predict what lies ahead for these four talented Superstars.
Becky Lynch
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Becky Lynch was born in Limerick, training and wrestling throughout the independent circuit until reaching WWE in 2013.
While she wasn't always a focal point in NXT, she found herself part of the quartet dubbed The Four Horsewomen alongside Charlotte Flair, Bayley and Sasha Banks.
Lynch was the only one of them to not win the NXT Women's Championship, although that didn't stop her from achieving an even greater goal in becoming the inaugural SmackDown Live women's champion.
The Lass Kicker went through phases as a babyface and a heel before settling back into her more natural self as a fan favorite, which she remains today.
While 2017 saw Lynch take a step back from the spotlight in favor of Naomi, Natalya and Flair, she could still be easily regarded as the No. 2 Superstar of the blue brand on any given night.
This is something that may change imminently, though, with the arrival of Asuka in the championship hunt.
Despite her accomplishments, Lynch is not as hot of a ticket in comparison to The Empress of Tomorrow.
Those two don't have a history together, but they will undoubtedly clash. However, Becky Balboa is unlikely to be the one to put an end to Asuka's undefeated streak.
That shouldn't stop her from still finding some success, though, as WWE isn't a company where only the top dog is useful.
Lynch has put in her time and worked her way into the hearts of the WWE Universe to the point she is going to be beloved for years to come.
Be it later in 2018 or sometime in 2019, she will find herself winning another championship, along with being one of the top contenders to come out victorious in the first WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal this year.
She may not match numbers with the accolades of best friend Flair when all things are said and done, but Lynch will continue to entertain and create a Hall of Fame career for herself as she goes down in history as one of the most influential women of her generation and the women's wrestling evolution as a whole.
Finn Balor
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Finn Balor is a native of Bray, County Wicklow, and though he's traveled the world for nearly 20 years, his roots are still with him to this day.
This includes his friendship with the aforementioned Becky Lynch, with the pair's relationship dating back to when he trained her in their NWA Ireland days.
Previously wrestling primarily as Prince Devitt, when coming to WWE, he chose the moniker of Finn Balor in reference to Irish mythology, specifically Fionn mac Cumhaill and Balor—the demon king that would also fuel his alter ego.
Balor quickly rose to the heights of the NXT roster, winning the NXT Championship from Kevin Owens at The Beast in the East in 2015.
He would hold that title for 292 days before dropping it to Samoa Joe, but he didn't waste any time before turning things around.
In the 2016 WWE draft, Balor was the fifth overall pick, being chosen before many more notable Superstars at the time, which meant he was in store for a monster push.
That came into effect soon after when he defeated Seth Rollins to become the first universal champion, although an injury he suffered during that match forced him to relinquish the title the next night.
Unfortunately, when Balor returned in April 2017, he did not pick up where he left off and spent most of the year with no solid plans in place.
Moving from feud to feud with people such as Elias and teaming up with The Hardy Boyz for no apparent reason just felt strange, and every time Balor started to pick up steam, nothing came from it, including his storyline with Bray Wyatt.
While some fans were eagerly awaiting a match against Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship, it never came to pass, and there was a black cloud above him suggesting he wasn't over enough with the crowd to justify being pushed that hard.
Since then, though, he has reformed The Balor Club with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, which has given him something of a renewed lease.
It isn't quite the same as the world title reign he never got to have, but Balor's immediate future sees him fighting for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania against The Miz and Seth Rollins.
There is a strong chance Balor comes out on top and has that title to his name for a long stretch.
He may also be a prime candidate to move over to SmackDown Live in the next Superstar Shake-up if someone like Rollins doesn't beat him to it, and there he could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
In the meantime, Balor is working his way back up from the midcard to an upper-midcard role, and he will eventually have to either earn that main event spot for good or will have reached the ceiling of his potential in WWE.
Considering how many fans he has and the amazing matches he can put on against people such as AJ Styles, Balor Club members around the world shouldn't be too worried about his future.
Killian Dain
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Out of the four Superstars on this list, Killian Dain is the one we know the least about, as he is the freshest to the roster, having only joined NXT in the latter half of 2016.
And yes, Dain is from Northern Ireland rather than the Republic, with which St. Patrick's Day is more associated, but he did celebrate the day on his Twitter account.
To say his career had the fast-forward button pushed on it would be an understatement, as he made his in-ring debut at an NXT live event on November 11 as Damian O'Connor, and by December 7, he had changed his name to Damo and aligned himself with Sanity on NXT television.
In January, his name changed again to Killian Dain, and he officially took over the group's strongman role from Sawyer Fulton.
Here and there, Dain played his part as a supporting player for the stable and was able to stand out significantly when given a prime spot in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33, during which he was able to last until the final three.
Dain has been one of the most dominant Superstars in NXT since his debut, even having an NXT Tag Team Championships reign to his name as part of Sanity as well as rarely losing.
The Beast of Belfast even manages to run roughshod over people such as Aleister Black when the latter is the No. 1 contender to the NXT Championship.
Dain has an incredibly important match coming up at TakeOver: New Orleans, where he will be one of the men competing for the inaugural North American Championship.
While his opponents are all more than capable of taking on this responsibility, Dain stands the biggest and toughest of them all, with Lars Sullivan being his only equal in terms of raw power.
A title reign is well within reach, but even if he comes up short, it's obvious WWE has big plans in store for Dain, who could even challenge the likes of Braun Strowman once he makes the jump to the main roster, which is almost certainly going to happen in 2018.
Sheamus
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By far the most accomplished Irish Superstar in WWE history is Dublin's Sheamus, who has worked up a Hall of Fame career for himself.
Only 166 days from his ECW debut, Sheamus was holding the WWE Championship after defeating John Cena at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2009.
This was unfathomable, as Cena was in his peak of being protected and Sheamus was just a rookie. But it set the tone for The Celtic Warrior to be taken seriously from the outset of his WWE career.
This wasn't a one-and-done type deal, either, since Sheamus has gone on to win three more world titles, two United States titles, a Royal Rumble, four Slammy Awards, become Mr. Money in the Bank, won King of the Ring and is enjoying his fourth Raw Tag Team Championships reign alongside Cesaro.
The Bar is one of the most entertaining things Sheamus has done in WWE, and it has also allowed him to prolong his career by not taking the full load of his matches by himself.
This is noteworthy as Sheamus suffers from spinal stenosis, which will undoubtedly shorten his career.
Hearing that news is sad, particularly because Sheamus appears to be a company man through and through and will probably stick it out as long as he can.
The WWE Universe needs to remain hopeful his inevitable retirement from in-ring competition doesn't happen for a long time but also be mindful that serious neck injuries are nothing to trivialize.
His fans should enjoy the time he has left as a performer while preparing themselves for the bad news Sheamus may not be wrestling in WWE for too many more years to come.
He could be lucky and still have a huge stretch of time before stepping away, but a random slip-up could put an end to everything—just look at what happened to Edge several years ago.
At the very least, while the future is uncertain for The Celtic Warrior, he's already managed to carve his name into WWE's history books and continues to build upon that legacy to this day.
When The Bar loses the tag team titles—be it to Braun Strowman at WrestleMania or some other team down the line—he will still have a spot waiting for him on either Raw or SmackDown Live, where he could easily stay in the tag team division or try his hand again back in the upper-midcard and main event levels.
However much time he has in the ring, rest assured, Sheamus is going to make the best of it.
Who are your favorite Irish Superstars from professional wrestling history? Do you have any strong memories you would like to share? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below and have a happy and safe holiday.
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
