Despite the awful name, WWE’s Great Balls of Fire PPV was a huge hit. No single match sticks out as a bust and all the storylines were executed to perfection. I was truly surprised by the Roman Reigns attempted murder heel-turn and how throwback that was to the Stone Cold days. Despite differing opinions, the match of the night has to go to Brock Lesnar v. Samoa Joe and the following are a few reasons why.

Time Constraints

As the Roman Reigns v. Braun Stroman ambulance match took a fearful turn, the WWE universe saw itself looking at the clock. With seemingly 20 min left in the show, an impromptu match between Curtis Hawkins and Heath Slater breaks out while the jaws of life were being used to open a seemingly undamaged ambulance door. All signs pointed to another 20-second match for Brock and the collective groans would have been heard from miles around. Luckily the match was fit into the show and although short it was a COMPLETE match. This is the real genius of the WWE on display as Brock’s last three matches were absolute stinkers ranging from 1-5 minutes. They used those matches to make an audience believe that Brock is out of shape and on his way out. Boy, we could not have been more wrong.

Joe’s Pre-match Beatdown

Just as the match was seemingly ready to start, the brilliant advocate known as Paul Heyman decided to give the Dallas audience a long winded intro. An impatient Samoa Joe took matters into his own hands laying the absolute Smackdown (still the A-show) on Brock. Again the WWE universe had their angry tweets keyed up with their fingers hovering over the send button. It appeared this match would not happen and we would have had to wait for Summerslam. After a short recovery, the Beast himself flashed Samoa Joe a smile and the crowd could breathe once again. Points again to the writers as this was not a PPV warranted a matchup. It would have been easy to push this match down the road and many thought it would. Fooled me twice (shame on me).

The Match

Time was still an issue, or so we thought. Joe was in control early as it seemed like Brock was going to be the next victim of the Coquina Clutch. Then the freight train that is Brock Lesnar made an emergency stop at Suplex City. After a few failed submissions Brock delivered an F-5 and the three count was delivered, solidifying the overall power of his finisher. As many fans will point out, if the number of kick-outs from finishers is far too high it destroys the prowess of the overall move. By ending the match after only one powerful slam the move takes on a folklore-like persona only assuring the significance of the first guy that kicks out if it months from now.

Altogether the match was short, sweet and complete. It had everything a fan would want in a match without the extra twenty minutes of kick-outs and recovery time. The WWE universe is clamoring for a rematch already and we know that one competitor is ready for redemption.

We've only just begun… — Samoa Joe (@SamoaJoe) July 10, 2017