WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor surrenders title after SummerSlam injury

Published Nov. 15, 2016 1:41 p.m. ET

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Andrew Lynch

At SummerSlam in Brooklyn on Sunday, former NXT champion and recent addition to Raw Finn Balor won the newly created Universal Championship in an epic match against Seth Rollins.

Unfortunately, Balor made a huge sacrifice in becoming the inaugural winner of Raw's championship.

Via WWE.com:

The injury was a result of a running powerbomb Rollins delivered to Balor on the barrier outside of the ring:

Balor, ridiculous performer that he is, was able to pop his shoulder back into place after an initial dislocation:

Unfortunately, the severity of the injury forced Balor to rescind the Universal Championship:

He opened Monday's Raw, coming to the ring in a sling with the title on his healthy shoulder as fans serenaded him with chants of "Finn" and "You deserve it!"

He thanked WWE for the opportunity, thanked Seth Rollins for the match of a lifetime, and thanked the WWE universe, the people he represented for less than 24 hours as their Universal Champion.

Then Balor surrendered the title to Foley (which to me, counts as a championship reign for the GM), and all hell broke loose.

Seth Rollins came to the ring.

Sami Zayn followed.

Then Chris Jericho.

And Kevin Owens.

Both Enzo & Cass, too.

What, did you think we'd forget Roman Reigns?

That's right, wrestling fans — we have ourselves another tournament.

Balor wasn't the only main eventer to suffer an injury during Sunday's pay-per-view. In a surprising turn of events, Charlotte defeated Sasha Banks to reclaim her WWE Women's Championship. Their match featured a number of ridiculous spots that left Banks in a crumpled heap. Afterward, multiple reports indicated that Banks has been removed from advertisements for Raw and WWE house shows for the next month.

And there was the absolutely brutal ending to the match between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar, which resulted in the Viper bleeding all over the mat.

Orton required multiple staples to close the wound after he lost to Lesnar via TKO.

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