WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017 ResultsBy Cassidy| July 10, 2017 WWE PPVs Survival of The Beast. The inaugural edition of WWE Great Balls of Fire was a RAW exclusive pay-per-view and it came to you, live on the WWE Network, from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. In his storied career, Brock Lesnar has faced a who’s who of legendary talent such as The Rock, John Cena, Triple H, Goldberg, and The Undertaker but perhaps no challenger has been as fearless and savage than Samoa Joe. After winning the Fatal 5-Way Extreme Rules Match at Extreme Rules last month, Samoa Joe punched his ticket to Great Balls of Fire to go one-on-one with “The Beast” for the Universal Championship and “The Destroyer” has set out to prove that he is much more than a stepping stone for Brock Lesnar. However, despite Brock Lesnar as well as his advocate Paul Heyman feeling the wrath of Joe’s Coquina Clutch, Brock remains confident heading into his first defense of the Universal Championship as “The Beast” still seems to be taking Samoa Joe lightly. What will happen when these two unstoppable animals collide at Great Balls of Fire with the Universal Title on the line? Will Brock Lesnar assert his dominance against “The Destroyer” or will Samoa Joe prove that he’s got what it takes to be one of the few men who have slayed “The Beast”? Perhaps no current feud in WWE is more hard-hitting and ferocious than the one between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. Roman thought he rid himself of “The Monster Among Men” over a month ago when a brawl between Reigns and Strowman resulted in Braun undergoing elbow surgery that was supposed to keep Strowman out of action for at least six months. However, Braun’s superhuman strength and desire to destroy Roman Reigns would surprisingly bring Strowman back five months ahead of schedule and “The Monster Among Men” picked up right where he left off, assaulting Roman Reigns and tossing him in an ambulance. In fact, an ambulance has become such an integral part of this rivalry that, at Great Balls of Fire, Roman Reigns would go to war with Braun Strowman in an Ambulance Match, where the only way to win is by throwing your opponent into an ambulance and shutting both doors. Can Roman Reigns put Braun Strowman away once and for all or will “The Monster Among Men” succeed in his quest to completely destroying “The Big Dog”? The rivalry between Cesaro & Sheamus and The Hardy Boyz stems all the way back to WrestleMania when The Hardy Boyz made their surprise return to WWE where they ultimately won the RAW Tag Team Titles in a Fatal 4-Way Ladder Match. Believing that The Hardy Boyz took their WrestleMania moment from them, Cesaro & Sheamus would showcase a new, more ruthless attitude and this new attitude would lead to the duo recapturing the gold at Extreme Rules as Cesaro & Sheamus would escape the steel cage just a second quicker than The Hardy Boyz to win the RAW Tag Team Titles. After a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match between the two teams ended inconclusively a few weeks ago, both teams would look to prove which one of them is superior once and for all at Great Balls of Fire when Cesaro & Sheamus would defend the RAW Tag Team Titles against The Hardy Boyz in a 30-Minute Iron Man Match! Making its pay-per-view debut, the tag team variation of the legendary Iron Man Match would see both teams compete for 30 minutes and, in that time limit, whichever team scores the most falls by pinfall, submission, disqualification, or count-out would walk out of Dallas as the RAW Tag Team Champions! Can the legendary Hardy Boyz go the distance against Cesaro & Sheamus to reclaim the RAW Tag Team Titles or will Cesaro & Sheamus prove that The Hardy Boyz are not on their level? Since coming to RAW in the Superstar Shake-Up, Alexa Bliss has taken over the RAW women’s division by almost immediately winning the RAW Women’s Title. However, the self-proclaimed “Goddess of WWE” has found herself the target of every woman in the locker room. Seemingly on an island all by herself, Alexa would watch as a Gauntlet Match would decide her next contender on RAW a couple of weeks ago. Though Nia Jax showed her dominance in the Gauntlet Match by running through four RAW Superstars back-to-back, it would be the crafty and pugnacious Sasha Banks who would break Nia down and make the dominant Superstar tap out to the Bank Statement to earn “The Boss” a RAW Women’s Title match at Great Balls of Fire. Can “The Boss” reclaim her spot atop the RAW women’s division or will Alexa Bliss continue her reign as RAW Women’s Champion? For months, Dean Ambrose and The Miz have waged war over the Intercontinental Championship and this war was brought to RAW as part of the Superstar Shake-Up. Ever the opportunist, The Miz would finally reclaim the Intercontinental Title at Extreme Rules in a match where, if Dean Ambrose was disqualified, he would lose the title. The Miz would do everything in his power to try and get Ambrose disqualified but, at one point in the match, “The Lunatic Fringe” would argue with the referee to try and keep the referee from disqualifying him and this is when The Miz would take advantage to win his seventh Intercontinental Championship. Since then, Dean Ambrose has been hot on the champion’s heels as Ambrose has repeatedly gotten the better of The Miz. However, the Intercontinental Champion would recruit Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel as his new “Miztourage” and this new alliance has paid dividends for the self-proclaimed “A-Lister” as of late but what will happen when Dean Ambrose gets his rematch for the Intercontinental Title at Great Balls of Fire? Can “The Lunatic Fringe” take back the prestigious championship or will The Miz find a way to hang onto the Intercontinental Title? Also at Great Balls of Fire, two former World Champions would collide in a match that came to be after some comments made by Seth Rollins where Seth referred to Bray Wyatt as a false prophet. Bray would respond by challenging “The Kingslayer” to a match at Great Balls of Fire, vowing to make Seth burn for his “blasphemy”. Never one to turn down a challenge, Seth Rollins would accept and now the stage is set for these two to go one-on-one at Great Balls of Fire. Plus, after RAW General Manager Kurt Angle’s investigation into the recent attacks on Enzo Amore and commentator Corey Graves’ shocking security camera footage revealed that the man who attacked Enzo was none other than his longtime friend and tag team partner Big Cass, this bitter personal rivalry would come to a head at Great Balls of Fire when Enzo Amore goes one-on-one with Big Cass. Can Enzo show his former friend that he’s much more than just a mouthpiece or will Big Cass bring legitimacy to his claims that he’s the true star and that Enzo has been holding him back all these years? Match Results Cruiserweight Championship: Kickoff Match: Neville (c) def. Akira Tozawa (with Titus O’Neil) by pin following a kick to the mid-section after twice racking Akira Tozawa on the top rope to retain. Bray Wyatt def. Seth Rollins by pin following Sister Abigail after a thumb to the eye. Big Cass def. Enzo Amore by pin following a big boot. RAW Tag Team Championship: 30-Minute Iron Man Match: Cesaro & Sheamus (c) def. The Hardy Boyz with a score of 4-3 to retain. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) def. The Hardy Boyz by Sheamus (c) pinning Matt Hardy following the Brogue Kick to score the first fall. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) def. The Hardy Boyz by Sheamus (c) pinning Jeff Hardy following the double team White Noise to score the second fall. The Hardy Boyz def. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) by Jeff Hardy pinning Cesaro (c) following the Twist of Fate to score the third fall. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) def. The Hardy Boyz by Matt Hardy getting counted out to score the fourth fall. The Hardy Boyz def. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) by Jeff Hardy pinning Cesaro (c) with a double team leg drop to score the fifth fall. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) def. The Hardy Boyz by Cesaro (c) pinning Jeff Hardy following the Swanton Bomb by Jeff Hardy to score the sixth fall. RAW Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks def. Alexa Bliss (c) by intentional count-out. As a result, Alexa Bliss (c) retains. Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) (with Maryse & The Miztourage) def. Dean Ambrose by pin following the Skull Crushing Finale after interference from the Miztourage to retain. Ambulance Match: Braun Strowman def. Roman Reigns Heath Slater def. Curt Hawkins by unknown means. Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Samoa Joe by pin following the F-5 to retain. See page 2 for detailed results.
