Ledley greets WWE's Finn Bálor in New Jersey

WWE star and Spurs fan Finn Bálor never shies away from anyone – but he admitted meeting Club legend Ledley King pitchside before our match against Roma in New Jersey on Tuesday night made him go a little bit weak at the knees!

The Irish grappler, a fan favourite on WWE’s flagship Monday Night RAW show, was a welcome guest of ours at the Red Bull Arena to watch our International Champions Cup clash with the Serie A giants, the second of three matches on our tour of America.

A Spurs supporter since the age of eight when his brother Colin introduced him to the Club, the all-action wrestler has found time in his hectic worldwide travel schedule to visit us at both the Training Centre and White Hart Lane in the last couple of years, most recently taking in our 3-0 home win over Hull City last December.

And with the team over in the States, he was thrilled to be able to meet up with the Club again, watch us in action – and be introduced to former captain, Club Ambassador and one of his own personal favourite players, Ledley.

“Honestly, it’s great to be here,” he told us. “I never imagined I’d be pitchside at a Tottenham game so I’m absolutely delighted to be here. I’ve been very fortunate to meet so many of my wrestling heroes throughout my life and I was actually more nervous meeting Ledley King than I was meeting a lot of my wrestling heroes – I was like ‘nice to meet you sir, (I’m a) big fan!’ so it was a very cool moment!

“I did an interview about two weeks ago with a radio station in New York and they asked if there are any wrestlers that I’d want to meet that I’d be kind of blown away by or nervous about – I don’t think there are any, but that there (with Ledley) was a very surreal moment for me, I was a little bit tongue-tied!”

Celebrating his 36th birthday on the day of the game, Finn, who has been embroiled in a feud with RAW rival Elias Samson of late, explained how everything fell into place for him to be able to watch his beloved Spurs in action once more.

“I didn’t know there was a game near New York,” he said. “I’d seen there was the game in Orlando (last Saturday’s clash with PSG) and WWE has a base in Orlando – our Performance Centre is there – but I was actually going to be wrestling on a show in Virginia on the same day so I was gutted, but then it just turned out that you guys were coming to New York as well so the way the stars aligned, I’m really happy. I was wrestling in (Washington) DC last night, I drove four hours last night up to New York, I live just across the river in Brooklyn so I came over today and I’m delighted to be here.”

As he approaches the one-year anniversary of when he became the first ever WWE Universal Champion – the top title on RAW – at SummerSlam 2016, Finn says he’s aiming to move up through the gears in the ring once again and can even, like us, look forward to competing at Wembley this year.

“I was the first Universal Champion, I got hurt in the match in Brooklyn last year and had to relinquish the title the next day, then had a seven-month rehabilitation programme but I’ve been back in the ring about four months now so I’m kind of just getting my feet back under me in the ring and getting moving,” he explained. “We've got SummerSlam coming up in Brooklyn real soon, then WWE is coming back to London at Wembley Arena – we'll be there in November.

“I’m really excited about next season for Spurs as well. Teams are going to be looking forward to coming to Wembley and putting it up against us but hopefully we’re up for the challenge.”