“Demon King” Finn Bálor could be on deck for a WrestleMania return

It’s been nearly eight months since Finn Bálor has transformed into the Demon King. Could WrestleMania 35 be the right time for his return?

For nearly two months, Finn Bálor has been embroiled in a feud with Bobby Lashley centered around the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Last week on Monday Night Raw, Lashley defeated Bálor for the belt, and while the two are set to square off yet again on this week’s edition of Raw, in tag team form, Bálor’s program with Lashley could be coming to an end.

First, there was word from WrestleVotes that their WWE source believes that getting Bálor out of the Intercontinental picture is a sign of bigger plans for him at WrestleMania in April. And now, there is another hint that, yes, Bálor could be doing something quite interesting next month — something we haven’t seen in some time:

The return of the “Demon King.”

The “Demon King,” Bálor’s other persona, hasn’t been seen in a WWE ring since last year’s SummerSlam, when he defeated Baron Corbin in less than two minutes. The elaborate body paint, the intimidating crawling and the darker, more dangerous persona is typically saved for big matches and/or marquee opponents and Bálor’s last few months have lacked both. While yes, his ongoing feud with Lashley has been rooted in championship stakes, it still hasn’t carried with it the importance that would lead to the Demon arriving to put the final punctuation mark on it.

The hint that Bálor could bring back the Demon King for WrestleMania 35 comes from WWE’s own advertising of the event. In promotional material for the WWE Network in conjunction with its airing of WrestleMania, eight Superstars are featured: Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Lashley, Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins and, yes, Bálor, in full Demon King character.

Now, it’s possible that the WWE is pulling a little bait-and-switch, or at least trying to drum up hype for something that may or may not actually happen at WrestleMania. After all, this is already a bloated card, with all championships expected to be on the line in addition to the Triple H-Batista no holds barred match, Shane McMahon facing The Miz, AJ Styles taking on Randy Orton and (many, many) others. And there’s also the option of the Demon King taking part in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, though it makes little sense beyond giving the match at least one memorable entrance.

At this point, we can only wait and see what blooms for Bálor as his program with Lashley is (or at least appears to be) winding down. However, that leaves only two editions of Raw before WrestleMania for which to develop a story between Bálor and an opponent worthy of taking on the Demon King.

While it’s not impossible for WWE to do so, the table needs to be set very clearly in a short amount of time. That the payoff is the return of the Demon King might be enough, but the WWE is going to have to turn a story quickly in order to get both Bálor and us to where we all need to be come WrestleMania to make a Demon appearance seem warranted.

Still, WWE and Bálor deciding to do the Demon King simply for the sake of doing it wouldn’t be a major reason for complaint. It is, after all, one of the most compelling visuals the company holds in its pocket.