GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!

BELL2BELL WRESTLING REVIEW: WWE GREAT BALLS OF FIRE 2017

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves & Booker T

Location: Dallas, TX

Venue: American Airlines Center

Bray Wyatt Vs Seth Rollins opens the show. Apparently Seth has had more PPV matches than anyone in the last 5 years. Considering Seth's injury that is quite a statistic! Seth's face is slammed into the steel steps allowing Bray to take control. Rollins takes a gnarly landing on his legs from a superplex. Rollins gets back into it and the crowd seems fully behind him. Great back and forth sequences with both men countering each other trying to hit signature moves. Bray shows disrespect to Seth slapping him in the face which made Seth go crazy! With the refs back turned trying to restrain a crazed Seth Bray pokes him in the eye and takes advantage with a Sister Abigail for the win. Good opening match I thought.

Enzo Amore Vs Big Cass follows with a brilliant heart breaking promo package that did go for quite a long time. An indication perhaps of how long this match would go! Enzo delivers a great promo showing a serious side he often lacks. The match starts unsurprisingly with Enzo trying to use his speed advantage but eventually gets squashed by the bigger man. Big Cass absolutely dominates and the crowd is trying to get Enzo back into it. Cass savagely press slams Enzo to the outside to loud boos from the crowd. Enzo barely makes it back into the ring but is met with a big boot and the win. Dominant performance.

Settle in because it's now time for the first ever 30 minute iron man tag team. The Hardy Boyz challenge Sheamus & Cesaro. Within seconds Cesaro distracts Matt and Sheamus takes advantage with a brogue kick and gets the first fall after about 30 seconds! They dominate for the first 10 minutes and after some great double team moves they pin Jeff to go 2 up. Matt gets in and comes in like a house on fire getting the momentum back on their side. Jeff hits the twist of fate on Cesaro and gets the pin to make it 2-1 nearly half way through. Just as it looks like The Hardy Boyz look like levelling it up Cesaro takes out legal man Matt on the outside and he is counted out to make it 3-1 with about 12 minutes to go. Matt is decimated until Jeff finally gets in and with 7 minutes left gets a pin on Cesaro to make it 3-2. Things are getting frantic now as Hardys are desperate to level it up. With less than 3 minutes left Matt delivers a twist of fate off the top rope for the win and to make it 3-3. Matt is busted up which makes a great visual at the end. With 30 seconds to go Jeff hits the Swanton bomb on Sheamus but doesn't know Cesaro is the legal man and he immediately pins Jeff to make it 4-3. Time runs out and the champs retain. Fantastic match!

Tough spot to follow that match and it's falling on the Raw Womens title match to do it. Sasha Banks challenges Alexa Bliss. I was worried crowd would be dead after that iron man match but they seemed into it. Alexa did that thing with her double jointed arm like she has done before to take an early advantage. Bliss sweeps Sasha's legs and she lands horribly on her back on the edge of the ring. Bliss wisely works on the back stomps, submission moves and a savage slam back first on Bliss knee. Banks gets back into it with a suplex into the corner. Bliss performs a beautiful looking sunset flip for a near fall. Bliss tries to hit twisted Bliss but is caught by knees and is immediately put into the bank statement but Bliss manages to make it to the ropes. Bliss decides to take a count out so even though she loses the match she retains the title. Sasha is not happy and chases after Bliss and they brawl towards the announce table. Bliss almost DDTs Sasha through the table but is knocked off and Sasha flies off the table with double knees. Good match and good brawl after the match.

Intercontinental title time and The Miz makes his way to the ring accompanied by Maryse and The Miztourage Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel Dean Ambrose comes out to a great crowd reaction. Ambrose starts the match by attacking Bo and Curtis. Seems to be smart until Curtis distracts Dean to allow Miz to take advantage. Miz dominates for most of the match until Dean takes Miz down with a spinning neckbreaker. Crowd seems much less into this match than any other match so far. Miz has Dean in the tree of woe and delivers multiple running drop kicks to the knee setting up the figure four leglock. Dean is bleeding from his mouth and manages to get to the ropes. Miz and Dean pick up the pace and the crowd gets into it more. Maryse distracts the ref and the Miztourage tries to take advantage but are all taken out by a flying Dean. Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds but Maryse puts Miz foot on the ropes to stop the count. With the ref distracted Bo whacks Dean in the back of the head setting him up for the skull crushing finale for the win. Not the best match these guys have had but decent enough. Hopefully they both move on now.

Sound the sirens because it's time for Roman Reigns Vs Braun Strowman in an ambulance match. Big fight feel for this match as the crowd is mostly anti-Reigns. Strowman throws Reigns around the outside and flattens him with multiple steel steps shots. Reigns tries to get back into it in the ring but is taken down by multiple slams. Reigns shows insane strength Samoan dropping Strowman. Reigns targets Brauns elbow with multiple chair shots and a drive by drop kick. Reigns keeps hitting Braun but he starts walking towards Reigns absorbing shots and throws him into the barricade. Braun throws Reigns into the side of the ambulance much like he did a few weeks ago. Reigns comes back with multiple superman punches but Braun keeps coming back. Braun uses an ambulance backboard to knock Reigns down. Braun tries to powerslam Reigns on the entrance way but is launched through the LED wall. Reigns hits Braun with a light and sets up for a spear but misses and goes straight into the ambulance and Braun closes the door for the win. Reigns however Spears out of the ambulance and takes down Braun. Reigns throws him in the back of the ambulance and drives away and crashes the ambulance into the back of a trailer! Nuts!!

Suddenly Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater are set to the ring for an impromptu match but they seemed distracted by what's happening as are the crowd and the announcers. The very swift emergency services arrive and Slater won the match apparently even though no one was watching! They manage to get the ambulance door open and Braun looks a mess but refuses medical help walking away on his own! What a freaking badass!

MAIN EVENT TIME! And it's one of the most anticipated main events in quite some time. Brock Lesnar defends the WWE Universal Championship against Samoa Joe. Joe attacks Brock before the match begins and slams him through the announce table! Brock looks completely out of it and slowly makes it back into the ring. The bell rings and immediately Joe goes back on the attack. Brock tries with knees to take advantage but Joe drives him into the corner. Brock briefly finds himself in the coquina clutch but counters out of it. Brock is back in the fight and suplex city begins. After 3 Germans Brock goes for another but Joe low blows him behind the refs back and takes over. Joe tries to get the clutch back in but Brock keeps fighting it. Joe gets it in again but it's countered with a side slam. Joe tries to get the clutch in again but Brock slides under and takes Joe back to suplex city. Brock goes for an F5 but Joe slips out into the clutch. Joe looks like he has Brock going to sleep but Brock counters it into an F5 for the win. Hell of a fight!

And that was WWE Great Balls of Fire. I really really enjoyed this one! Terrible name aside this was in my opinion the best Raw brand PPV since the brand split. Every match ranged from decent to excellent. The tag match will probably go down in history as a classic as will the insanity that was the Ambulance match. The main event wasn't quite the classic it could have been but it was still a great fight for the time given. I am nit picking but it would have been cool if the stage had a drive in theme like all the great promos had instead of the same old stage they have for every show.

Thank you all for reading and let me know what you thought of the show in the comments!