Did I just see an attempted murder on WWE television? When one of your most memorable moments is your supposedly top babyface attempting to kill a man after losing a match, you know you are in for a unique night.
In the terribly named “Great Balls of Fire”, we had a lot of wins for the heels and a lot of blood throughout. Raw was able to put on a fun and unique pay-per-view in Dallas on Sunday night for sure.
With all of this in mind, we present the top five most surprising moments of the WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017:
#5 Bray Wyatt wins?
Few characters are more frustrating than Bray Wyatt. People still love his creepy character and his cool entrance. However, he always talks a big game but ends up on the losing end of every feud. Fans stop believing the big talk when they expect him to lose. Imagine my surprise when he actually wins a match on a pay-per-view at Great Balls of Fire against Seth Rollins.
Bray actually controlled the offence of the match through against the talented Seth Rollins. It led me to think that Rollins would pull out the traditional face in peril victory. It was all the more shocking to see Bray actually pull a pin on one of the major stars of the Raw Brand.
Sure, it required a poke to Seth’s eyes but the victory was still needed. Will Bray actually be able to win the feud? Time will tell.
#4 A match ends with a countout
I was not shocked to see that a Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss match would end in some underhand means. There certainly is still a lot of potential for the feud and I expected that to continue through Summerslam, before the show. I predicted before the show that Bayley or Nia Jax would be a part of the finish. What we got instead was much worse.
A countout finish, which we got at the last WWE PPV, was an anti-climactic way to finish the match. Alexa Bliss simply sat on the outside and won the match.
Why didn’t Sasha Banks try and stop the count? It was weird and surprising the WWE would pull the same terrible finish again so quickly.
#3 Roman loses in the worst way possible
Roman has established himself as a polarising figure in recent months. He ended the career of the Undertaker, injured Braun Strowman, and bragged about his skills in the ring. The interesting fact is Reigns hasn’t won a pay-per-view match since WrestleMania 33 and many expected him to win here. Instead, he lost in the dumbest way possible.
The Ambulance match was solid. Both superstars looked like credible threats with many brutal looking spots. The question is how do you successfully book a finish to make both look good going forward? The answer it seems was to have Roman accidentally eliminate himself. It was weird.
The weirdest and strangest moment of the show would come post-match. However, that doesn’t take away from the ambulance match itself that ended with a mistake from one of its competitors.
#2 Samoa Joe loses to one F-5
Samoa Joe has looked like a legit bad ass in the last few weeks. I wonder if the WWE was surprised by the reaction that Samoa Joe has been getting in the past few weeks. Judging by the reaction in Dallas, the fans wanted Samoa Joe to win the Universal Title. If the goal was to keep both superstars strong going into Summerslam, then this match accomplished that difficult goal. It was surprising how quickly it ended, however.
Samoa Joe’s attack on Brock Lesnar before the match was a smart way to sell Joe’s chances of beating Brock. Brock is really good at selling himself as being in peril. It led to a back and forth physical brawl where both looked credible threats to win through the fun eight-minute match.
The surprising thing was how abruptly the match ended. Samoa Joe had survived six suplexes and still had locked in his submission on multiple occasions. Brock was turning purple again.
Brock, about to pass out, quickly counters it and hit a finisher from a weakened state. In an era of kick-outs of finishers that was shocking to see Samoa Joe go down so quickly and suddenly.
#1 Roman Reigns attempted to kill a man
As mentioned earlier in this list, I was surprised how Roman Reigns lost. Needless to say, Roman Reigns took it like a popular good guy would, he shook Braun Strowman’s hand and left to fight another day. You mean he didn’t do that? Instead, he attempted to murder a man for beating him in a pay-per-view match. That is the actions of your top face?
You cannot deny the surprise of the night is “poor loser” Roman deciding the solution to his fluke loss to Braun was attempting vehicular manslaughter. It seemed a strange choice for Roman unless they want him to be heel, then it was great.
I would love for this to be a double turn. The image of Braun refusing help and walking away from the horrific accident seemed more the actions of a tough babyface. At the very least it leads to some fun character moments for both going forward.
