Finn Balor has spoken about his close friendship with fellow WWE star Kevin Owens and explained what brought them together.

Cody Rhodes recently interviewed Balor on his “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast, where Owens had sent him a message to Balor. In the message, Owens spoke about his friendship with Balor and how he has valued him greatly as a friend over the last decade. An emotional Balor spoke about it and recalled how the two became close.

“I don’t think Kevin realizes how much he’s done for me,” Balor began. “Although me and Kevin have had very similar backgrounds and kind of journeys to WWE, we’d actually only met each other once in passing at an indie show in London, and it was about four months before we started in NXT, and that was kind of the only reason why we even shook hands and said, ‘Oh hey man, nice to meet you.’ But we started in NXT together and we’re two guys coming from similar career paths, but different places.”

Balor explained that despite both of them having several years in the business, and being top guys in their respective promotions, Owens in ROH and him in NJPW, they were put through the wringer to adapt to the WWE style. This, he believes, is how the two bonded and became close friends.

“So me and Kevin kind of bonded really strongly over the common obstacles that we were having to overcome together, in this new life that we’re having, in NXT and WWE. And yeah, I know we’re probably different. In every way [we’re different], the way we wrestle is different, our lifestyles are different. But sometimes opposites attract, and me and Kevin, I can honestly say he’s one of my favorite people and best friends in the whole world.”

Owens, who is out currently due to injury, previously spoke about how facing Balor at WrestleMania is one of the matches he wants to have in his career.