Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
After one of the best WWE match build-ups in some time, Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe did a good brawl, but still came across as more the afterthought to a Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman angle at the 7/9 Great Balls of Fire show.
Strowman beat Reigns in an ambulance match when Reigns missed a spear and flew into the back of the ambulance, since the back door was open. After the match, Reigns came back out of the back of the ambulance and speared Strowman. He then rammed the back door of the ambulance into Strowman’s bad elbow over-and-over. Reigns put Strowman in the back of the ambulance, threw the ambulance driver out and jumped in and drove it off. When he was backstage, he supposedly put it in reverse and drove as fast as he could (there was a very clear jump cut in the editing) and smashed the back of the ambulance into a semi-trailer with the idea Strowman was caught in the back.
Reigns then left the drivers seat while Strowman was supposedly stuck in the back. They used the jaws of life to pry open the door. Strowman got out, with blood on his elbow and head, but limped off and refused medical attention. While some saw this as a double-turn, and Strowman was very clearly acting like a wounded monster, which is a babyface position, Reigns was the same Reigns the next night on Raw.
Lesnar retained his title in a main event that went only 6:25 and was well worked but anti-climactic. There was a brawl before the match, and the match itself was very believable with hard knees and shoulders, as well as a head-butt, multiple choke attempts and multiple German suplexes. Joe had the choke on in the middle of the ring, and Lesnar was turning purple. Lesnar then broke the hold, hoisted Joe up on his shoulders, and pinned him after an F-5.
The match was good. Lesnar had done short explosive matches with Bill Goldberg and they worked because it shocked people the first time and they didn’t want more the second time. But this felt too quick, and Joe was pinned after one F-5, which made him just another challenger in the loss. I would have thought they’d have kept Joe more special by doing less of a conclusive finish and allowing him to kick out of the F-5.
Joe really came across as a challenger who was put there just to fill a PPV while they were getting ready for a big match, when Lesnar vs. Joe was the big match. The angle on Raw the next night, where Paul Heyman, Lesnar, Joe and Reigns were in the ring, and both Reigns and Joe were wanting the SummerSlam title shot, ended up with Paul Heyman agreeing to let Lesnar face Reigns, but said that Joe would never get another title shot, which meant he had to at some point get another match. Joe’s mic work was superior to Reigns and when it was over, it felt that there was more interest in a Joe rematch. And if the idea was to lead you to wanting that match more, the finish the night before made even less sense.
Officially, it was announced that on the 7/17 Raw show in Nashville, Joe will face Reigns, and the winner faces Lesnar at SummerSlam in Brooklyn on 8/20.
The plan as of before the PPV was Lesnar vs. Reigns. It may still end up that way, but it feels like there would be more interest in a three-way with Joe. However, the match to determine the next contender and nobody winning and turning into a three-way has been done to death. You could also include Strowman in the match since Strowman vs. Reigns obviously needs to continue. Strowman could also cost Reigns the match and they could still do Lesnar vs. Reigns at WrestleMania, but usually WrestleMania is a fresh match and not a rematch. Plus, the John Cena free agent thing started as soon as the plans were changed from Lesnar vs. Strowman for the title to Lesnar vs. Reigns, with the idea Cena could challenge for the Raw title if need by at WrestleMania.
While multiple-person matches are way overdone, there is more intrigue and different ways to book by making the SummerSlam Universal title match into a multiple person bout. Plus, Reigns beating Joe ends a good story of how Reigns has never beaten Joe, which is key because if and when Reigns wins the title, they are going to need heels ready who can challenge for the title. Strowman won the Ambulance match and can always be one of those guys, but it’s also a program that has been done for months. Bray Wyatt beat Seth Rollins twice this past week, and he can be another contender, but it’s also not a fresh program. Reigns vs. Joe has been done twice on Raw, but it’s fresher than the other two.
You could also put the belt on Joe, which means you’d have the champion at TVs and house shows, and have him lose it back to Lesnar at the Rumble. Lesnar works most Mondays in the Rumble-to-Mania season anyway, so it’s not an issue with the champion not on TV at that point. That also enables the originally planned Lesnar vs. Reigns title change at Mania. Of course, the Reigns coronation is planned constantly for Mania, and then has been backed off on with the idea Reigns was going to be booed out of the place.
The plan has been to make SummerSlam huge this year. The storyline with Kurt Angle, which will also be revealed next week, should lead to something. A.J. Styles and John Cena are teasing a U.S. title match. Big Cass and Big Show have started a program. The Hardys are teasing the Broken gimmick and it has come out that the Hardys and Anthem were very close to a settlement last week on those rights. They are also teasing a Shield reunion with Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins as a team, likely with Miz and either Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas in a 2-on-3, or Miz with another partner. Right now the story going around is the women’s title on Raw will be a four-way with Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Sasha Banks and Bayley (which explains Bayley pinning Bliss in the tag match on Raw) , but that wasn’t etched in stone.
On the Smackdown side, things are dependent on the 7/23 Battleground show from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
The updated show is Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton in a Punjabi Prison match, Cena vs. Rusev in a flag match, new U.S. champion Styles vs. Kevin Owens, tag champs Usos vs. New Day, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin and a five-way women’s match with Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Tamina, Lana and Natalya, with the winner facing Naomi at SummerSlam. Other teased stuff is Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis and Tyler Breeze & Fandango against the mystery team that keeps attacking them and thrashing their office.
As for Great Balls of Fire, it was a heel-dominated show, with heels winning six of eight matches. The only face wins were Banks’ count out win over Bliss, which was a change in plans just hours before the show, and it wasn’t much of a win since Bliss retained the title, and Lesnar beating Joe.
There were two late results changes, as Vince McMahon changed on having Wyatt beat Rollins the day before the show. It’s possible that with that result changed, which does make sense as they would need heels ready for Reigns as that was the direction at least at the time, then Wyatt one could argue should have gotten that win. So just so it wasn’t almost all heels, the Bliss result was changed.
The one thing about the odds, is that when the finishes are first done and the long odds come in, if you bet on several underdogs (knowing the direction and avoiding the ones where Vince McMahon isn’t going to possibly change the finish), you can miss on five but if you get even one right betting on his changing his mind, let alone two, because the odds are so long, you can make money just playing underdogs. Of course, it’s rare when he changes two finishes, but it’s not rare to change one.
The reaction to the show was mixed. A lot depends on whether you like the car crash backstage type of action. If you don’t like the silliness and fakeness of that type of stuff, then you probably would have mixed or negative feelings on the show. If you do like that sort of thing, that angle was outrageous and the rest of the show was good enough. The special effects stuff in wrestling like what was done in Reigns vs. Strowman usually works for the masses, unless it’s overdone, and it probably played a part in the ratings being healthy the next night even with strong competition.
If you were someone who was only interested in the main event because of how well it was built up, you could be somewhat disappointed as while the action was good, it was short and the finish was flat, too abrupt and too easy that early. Joe isn’t Bill Goldberg where there really wasn’t interest in them doing a long fight, and you just wanted to see Goldberg’s big moves and have it short and explosive. With Joe, a lot of people wanted a great world title fight, and you got a good fight, but it was a short fight and had intense action but lacked the big fight drama.
Most of the matches were fine. With so many heel wins, as you could expect, some of the finishes weren’t good, particularly the walk-out count out loss to Bliss, which just feels 30 years out of date and completely ridiculous from a logic standpoint. But they still rely on it. If you want great matches out of your PPV shows, this match didn’t have that at all. Aside from Enzo vs. Cass, match quality was fine most of the way, and good in several matches, but nothing was great.
The show drew a legitimate sellout of 14,000 fans to the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
1. Neville pinned Akira Tozawa in 11:34 to retain the cruiserweight title. This had more reaction than most pre-show matches and cruiserweight matches. But it still fell way short of what these two have the potential to do. The Tozawa chant was really over. Tozawa did two tope’s. Tozawa turned a fireman’s carry into the octopus. Tozawa did a lot of fast moves. Neville missed a middle rope Phoenix splash. Tozawa went up for the senton but Neville rolled to the floor. Neville won by crotching Tozawa on the top rope, then kicking the ropes while he was still straddling the ropes. Tozawa fell into the ring and Neville pinned him after a spin kick to the stomach. ***1/4
2. Bray Wyatt pinned Seth Rollins in 12:04. Wyatt has noticeably gained weight of late. He looked very heavy, but can still move. Rollins went for a tope, but got punched. Wyatt used a DDT on the floor. Rollins hit a tope and a blockbuster. Rollins went to the top rope, go crotched and Wyatt gave him a jawbreaker off the ropes for a near fall. Wyatt also used a uranage for a near fall. The finish saw Wyatt poke Rollins in the eyes and his Sister Abigail. This was just a basic normal match and well below a usual Rollins PPV bout. **3/4
3. Big Cass pinned Enzo Amore in 5:20. Enzo did a long promo before the match, talking about how he and Cass made their main roster debut in Dallas. He mostly talked about Frank Sinatra’s song “That’s Life,” and said it reminds him of his own life. He said he doesn’t sleep because his real life is better than his dreams. Last I heard he was dating Liv Morgan. Enzo said that he was a star and Cass is 7-feet tall and nothing else and that he was the one who was going to be larger than life. Then the match started, and it was just a total one-sided squash. Booker opened the match saying Enzo doesn’t stand a chance. And they worked the match telling that story. The positive is the crowd really hated Cass for breaking up the team. He was booed a lot. Cass pressed Enzo overhead and dropped him over the top rope to the floor. Enzo struggled to beat the ten count, but got kicked in the face and pinned. *
4. Sheamus & Cesaro beat Matt & Jeff Hardy four falls to three in a 30:00 Iron Man match for the Raw tag team titles. The positive is the match was never dull and it was well laid out, with the faces behind and chasing. But it never got great. Sheamus pinned Matt in :16 with a Brogue kick to win the first fall. Cesaro acted like he was legal and ran past Matt, distracting him for the Brogue kick. It was slow early. There were “Brother Nero” chants. Sheamus pinned Jeff to win the second fall in 9:46 after a double-team white noise. Jeff pinned Cesaro in the third fall as 12:52 after a twist of fate. Jeff jumped off Matt’s back with a flip dive on both Cesaro & Sheamus on the floor. Cesaro rammed Matt’s head into the post and he was counted out at 16:44, giving Sheamus & Cesaro at 3-1 lead. Matt was worked on for several minutes. Jeff saved him when Cesaro had the sharpshooter on. Jeff pinned Cesaro at 22:55 using a cradle with his legs. They tried the assisted white noise on Jeff, but Matt threw Cesaro out. Matt used a moonsault but Cesaro saved Sheamus. Cesaro was late in making the ave. Matt pinned Sheamus to tie it at 3-3 with a twist of fate off the middle rope at 27:04. Jeff did a plancha on Sheamus & Cesaro. Matt & Jeff did a double splash off the top rope on Sheamus, but Cesaro made the save. Matt busted his head open and was bleeding heavily near the right eye as when he splashed, his head his Sheamus’ head. Cesaro tagged in and Jeff didn’t see it. Jeff hit the swanton on Sheamus, but as he landed, Cesaro covered Jeff for the pin at 29:30 to go ahead 4-3. Cesaro tried to stall the last 30 seconds. They hit the time cue perfect as Jeff hit the twist of fate on Sheamus and covered him for the pin, and the two count was at the real 30:00 mark so they didn’t have to manipulate the time to get the two count near fall when the bell rang. The announcers tried to put it over as the greatest Iron Man match ever, and that was embarrassing because it was on the low end of Iron Man matches. Plus they pushed that it was the first tag team Iron Man match, and it wasn’t that either. ***1/4
5. Sasha Banks beat Alexa Bliss via count out so Bliss retained the women’s title in 11:46. Bliss did the spot where she dislocated her elbow (she’s double jointed) to freak everyone out and every paused so Bliss then nailed Banks and made fun of everyone for falling for it. She did that once before in WWE so they had to play dumb on the idea it was done already. Banks used the back stabber and bank statement but Bliss made the ropes. Bliss used twisted bliss, but Banks got her knees up. Banks got the bank statement in the middle of the ring and Bliss struggled for a long time in a great rope break spot. But then the finish was Banks throwing Bliss into the barricade and Bliss sitting there and smiling outside the ring and getting counted out to save the title. Because the finish was so bad, they tried to make you forget it by doing a big post-match brawl. They were fighting near the announcers table. Banks knocked Bliss off the table to the floor. Banks was supposed to do the double knees to Bliss off the table to the floor, and that’s what they announcers called it even though her knees were nowhere near there. Instead, she did a Thesz press off the table and nailed Bliss hard enough that she ended up with a bloody nose. The match was just standard until the good rope break spot. **3/4
6. The Miz pinned Dean Ambrose to retain the IC title in 11:13. Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas were out with their new costumes. Axel dressed up in a suit and tie like he’s a businessman. Dallas dressed like he’s the One Man Gang from the 80s except six inches and 170 pounds lighter. Ambrose threw Dallas into the ring steps but Axel distracted him and Miz took control. Miz worked over the knees to set up the figure four. Miz did his God awful kicks. Ambrose did his elbow off the top. Ambrose came off the top rope to the floor with the elbow onto everyone, but sold that his knee went out. Ambrose finally hit Dirty Deeds, but Maryse put Miz’s leg on the ropes. Ambrose then hit a tope on Miz. Ambrose flipped Axel into the ring. Maryse distracted the ref and Dallas hit Ambrose with a foreign object and Miz got the pin after the Skull crushing finale. Ambrose’s mouth was busted open during the match making three straight matches with hard way blood. **½
7. Braun Strowman beat Roman Reigns in 16:40 in the ambulance match. This was Strowman playing monster and running into the post whenever it was Reigns’ time for offense. Strowman hit the powerslam, but then realized pins didn’t count. After Strowman missed yet another charge into the post, Reigns started hitting his bad elbow with a chair. Reigns hit Strowman with chair shots to the back but Strowman did no-sell spots. Strowman took the chair away from Reigns and threw him into the barricade twice. He threw Reigns into the screens on the stage. He threw him across the stage. Then Strowman missed a charge and ran into the screens. Reigns then threw Strowman through the screens. That led to the first and only “This is awesome” chant of the show. Strowman threw Reigns of the stage again. Reigns hit Strowman with a lighting grid and went for the spear, but missed and flew into the ambulance. Strowman shut the door to win. Reigns came out of the ambulance and speared Strowman and started slamming the ambulance back door into his elbow over-and-over. Reigns threw Strowman in the back of the ambulance. Reigns threw the ambulance driver out and drove the ambulance backstage and into the parking lot. He then put it in reverse and drove as fast as he could backwards with the back of the ambulance hitting a semi-trailer. This led to the long scene of Kurt Angle panicking. A local company that uses actors and a fake fire truck was called in to do the skit (they didn’t use real city firefighters) where they pried open the door and Strowman stumbled out, limped away and refused medical attention. ***3/4
8. Heath Slater pinned Curt Hawkins in 2:27. For some reason they put this match in the ring as a stand-by match while they finished the prior skit. They cut away from match and the bell rang. Slater was announced as the winner. The announcers never brought the match up, nor did they show, replay or talk about the finish.
9. Brock Lesnar retained the Universal title over Samoa Joe in 6:25. Joe attacked Lesnar from behind before the match started. Joe threw him into the barricade and gave him a uranage through a table. Lesnar got in the ring and was smiling from the beating. Joe started with an enzuigiri and head-butts. Lesnar came back with hard knees. Joe used shoulderblocks and punches. Lesnar took him down and used shoulders and knees. Joe used another head-butt. Joe got the choke, but Lesnar escaped and hit a German suplex. Lesnar used a second German suplex hard on the shoulder and a third one. Joe distracted the ref and kicked Lesnar low. Joe used another uranage for a near fall. Joe went back to the choke. Lesnar picked Joe up while being choked and gave him a side slam. Lesnar missed a charge and went into the post. Lesnar came back and hit three more German suplexes. He went for the F-5, but Joe got behind him and put the choke on again. Lesnar backed Joe into the corner, but Joe held onto the choke. Shouldn’t that have been called a rope break? Joe had the choke on in the middle when Lesnar picked him up, hit the F- 5 and got the pin. ***½
