POP! WWE – “The
Demon” Finn Balor
Well, it’s been quite a few weeks since I last posted on
here. Things have been a little chaotic, with me starting a new job, along with
a variety of family illnesses. But here we are back again, and hopefully it won’t
be anywhere near as long until the next.
As I’ve been watching wrestling again over the last few
months, Finn Balor has become one of my favourite performers. He’s not being
used as effectively as he could or should be, but he’s prominent on RAW and you
can always guarantee he’ll put on a good show.
Now, at first glance he might seem an odd choice for a POP.
He doesn’t tend to be the most flamboyantly dressed wrestler in the business –
black, blue or silver trunks with matching boots. But every now and then, he’ll
emerge for his matches as The Demon.
In layman’s terms, he essentially throws on a whole bunch of
body paint to look like the demon king Balor of Irish mythology, who ruled over
the evil Fomhóraigh. The look
definitely has some similarities to Marvel’s Venom, but it’s still one of the
better pop culture appropriations in wrestling over recent years.
This isn’t the first time the Demon version of Balor has
been released; originally there was a Chase of the regular figure which
depicted him in makeup but without the headdress. I’d prefer the Chase to be
the regular release, and this version with the headdress to be the Chase…but
hey, that’s Funko for you.
The body sculpt is the same as the regular Finn, and the
head appears to be a retool. It’s a surprisingly heavy piece as a result,
though it doesn’t have any issues with balance. My only real complaint is that
he looks a little too tall in comparison to most of his WWE POP! companions,
but that’s simply a limitation of the format.
Now, the facepaint doesn’t work quite as well in Funko
format as it does in real life, but the general effect is still conveyed.
Additionally, they haven’t given him his usual back paint, but I can imagine
this might have been a costing issue. It’d be covered up by the headdress
anyway, so it’s not a huge deal. It all adds up to a fun, if slightly imperfect
figure. In a line dominated by dudes with beards in tights, he definitely
stands out.
Like many white people in Australia, I’m of partial Irish
descent*. Accordingly, part of the reason I like Finn Balor** is because he
doesn’t play to traditional and offensive “Oirish” stereotypes. You might be
surprised to learn that there’s actually quite a bit more to Gaelic culture than
potatoes, four-leaf clovers, Riverdance, Guinness and leprechauns. The fact
that they haven’t forced him into a Lucky Charms outfit or similar is a shockingly
progressive approach from WWE, an organisation which seems
to aggressively seek controversy around race and ethnicity. Balor has
helped give Irish mythology a bigger place on the pop culture landscape, and
he’s a darn great in-ring performer.
It’s been quite a while since Finn has performed as The
Demon, which is a shame. At the moment WWE seem to be using him as mid-card eye
candy, rather than the guy who could
convincingly beat the h*ck out of Kenny Omega. Still, with
Summerslam and a high profile Australian PPV on the way, you never know what we
could see in the near future.
*English, Scottish, Welsh and Finnish too. More Ancestry.com
results to come from the other side of the family soon, hopefully.
**Same thing goes for Becky Lynch
