JD McDonagh Recalls Looking Up To Finn Balor Before Getting To WWE, Praises Lyra Valkyria

JD McDonagh says that he looked up to Finn Balor as an inspiration when he was coming up in the wrestling world. McDonagh weighed in on Irish representation in WWE during his conversation on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, and you can see a couple of highlights below (h/t to Wrestling Inc):

On looking up to Balor: “Sheamus was the first guy that, certainly for my generation, the first guy that broke out of Ireland, broke into the States. But that wasn’t really a huge help to me because he also was 6’4” and looked like a Celtic Warrior. The guy that made me stop and go, oh this is a possibility, was Finn [Balor]. He was walking that path ahead of me … he was just another guy from Bray that came through the same school I did, the same mats.

On Lyra Valkyria: “She’s killing it. She’s the IC Champion of the world. I love that girl, she’s awesome.”