The intense rivalry between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor has continued on NXT Gold Rush 2023, last night. The feud that already got heated up on Raw saw continuation on a night where Rollins successfully defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against former NXT Champion Bron Breakker in the main event encounter of the show.
All these happenings went down on the Night One of NXT Gold Rush 2023. After pinning Breakker to retain his title, Rollins didn’t get much time to celebrate the victory as Balor came out and viciously attacked him. It was the second consecutive attack from Balor to the champion, this week. It previously happened on Raw to scrap out a world championship match.
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During NXT Gold Rush 2023, the reigning NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes and his ally Trick Williams came out to make the save for Rollins. But prior to that, Balor’s attack on Rollins marked the former’s return to the developmental brand of the WWE. It happened after a couple of years and time will tell whether it will remain as a one-off appearance or not.
NXT Gold Rush 2023: Finn Balor returns to NXT after a couple of years
Before NXT Gold Rush 2023, The Judgment Day member was the last present on NXT in 2021. His last match happened against then-NXT Champion Karrion Kross on the May 25, 2021 episode. A month before that, Balor actually won the NXT Championship for the second time but Kross then won back the title from Balor who now has experienced a combined reign of over 200 days.
With Rollins successfully defending his title at NXT Gold Rush 2023, it’s now confirmed that he will be defending his title against Balor at WWE’s Money in the Bank event scheduled from the O2 Arena in London, England. Back on the June 12 episode of Raw, the match was made official after Rollins agreed to put the title on the line against Balor at the PLE.
A week before that, on June 5, Rollins defended his title against another Judgment Day member Damian Priest which was the first world championship defense of his reign. Balor unwillingly cost Priest the title despite being asked not to interfere. It was last week that Rollins agreed to compete against Balor at Money in the Bank. At the same time, an Open Challenge and another defense at NXT Gold Rush 2023 were announced.
