Great Balls Of Fire - Full Results

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WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville def. Akira Tozawa



DALLAS — Akira Tozawa’s night ended in painful fashion in more ways than one as Neville denied him to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at WWE Great Balls of Fire Kickoff.

The Stamina Monster is the latest in a long line of Superstars to come at the King and miss, even if he came closer than most.

Blame Neville’s arrogance for landing him in a hole he had trouble climbing out of.

Although Tozawa landed a few early shots on Neville, the champion cut the challenger’s momentum off in savage fashion, landing several kicks to the head and tossing his opponent into the barricade.

But just when things looked most dire for Tozawa, he channeled his pain into The Powa of Tozawa, using a series of chops, a side suplex and a pair of suicide headbutts to reduce Neville to a heap.

When Neville attempted to rally by hoisting Tozawa on his shoulders, the challenger maneuvered his way into an Octopus to further weaken the champion.

Getting desperate fast, Neville rallied and went big with a second-rope Phoenix Splash, but Tozawa dodged the maneuver and administered his top-rope senton for what seemed like a surefire win — until Neville rolled out of the ring.

Tozawa tossed The King of the Cruiserweights back in, and that’s when Neville decided to win by any means necessary.

Thanks to some quick maneuvering, Neville managed to land Tozawa crotch-first on the ropes.

The champion delivered a swinging boot to maximize the impact of the injury, then simply kicked Tozawa in the gut to take the last of the fight out of The Stamina Monster.

Controversial? Perhaps.
But the King can rule his land as he sees fit.

Bray Wyatt def. Seth Rollins



DALLAS — Seth Rollins may never believe that Bray Wyatt is a “god,” but The Reaper of Souls cast The Architect down all the same in the opening match of the first-ever WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view event, and he did so with absolute relish.

After weeks of absorbing insults — “blasphemy,” in his words — from Rollins, Wyatt seemed to enjoy getting in The Kingslayer’s head in the early goings of their long-brewing confrontation.

The Reaper of Souls laughed off The Architect’s early attacks and dangled upside-down off the ring post, stopping Seth cold right as he was about to pounce.

Wyatt only turned on the jets once Rollins had been good and duly unmanned, and once he did, The Eater of Worlds quickly looked like a “god” of the Old Testament variety.

The Kingslayer was subjected to all manner of savagery, landing face-first on the steel steps before suffering a superplex off the top rope and an unorthodox maneuver that spiked him forehead first into the apron.

The Kingslayer only managed to find daylight after dodging a running senton from his foe, and Rollins quickly threw his body to the wind in an attempt to claw out of the abyss.

Bray answered in kind, blasting The Architect with a clothesline that forced Seth to deplete his own strength with maneuvers like a Michinoku Driver.

Rollins’ persistence led Wyatt to scream “FIGHT ME!” at the top of his lungs, and The Architect obliged, driving The Eater of Worlds out of the ring with a flurry of fists and kicks.

Alas, boxing with a self-proclaimed “god” turned out to be a bad move for The Man.
While the ref attempted to peel Rollins off his foe, Wyatt jabbed The Architect in the eye with his thumb.

Quite literally blinded by Wyatt’s power, Rollins was easy pickings for a Sister Abigail that put him down for three.

Big Cass def. Enzo Amore



DALLAS — In the same building where Enzo Amore and Big Cass made their Raw debut last year, the seven-foot Queens native tore his former “little buddy” to pieces, completing the dissolution of their beloved tag team and reducing The Realest Guy in the Room to a quivering mess.

To say the much smaller Enzo was outmatched would be an understatement, so few were surprised at the lopsided nature of the encounter.

In fact, the only shots Enzo landed on Cass were of the verbal variety, as he drew eerie parallels between his story and Frank Sinatra’s lyrics in the classic “That’s Life” in a stirring speech before the bell.

Perhaps sensing what was about to happen, Muscles Marinara all but dared Cass to take him out, vowing that he would rise from the ashes and leave Cass in his shadow all the same.

Cass, in one last concession to his former partner, did as requested and subjected Enzo to a prolonged, street-style mugging.

That Amore kept throwing hands until he had no fight left in him was enough to give him a moral victory — he even managed to haul himself back into the ring at the count of nine after Big Cass gorilla pressed him to the outside.

In what might be considered a small, if brutal, act of mercy, Cass finished Enzo off quickly, blasting him with a big boot and covering him for the win.

A barely conscious Enzo had to be helped to his feet by a pair of referees, so he wasn’t able to see Big Cass’ triumphant walk up the ramp, but perhaps that’s for the best.
If nothing else, he’s suffered enough.

Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus def. The Hardy Boyz (30-Minute WWE Iron Man Match)



DALLAS — Cesaro & Sheamus don’t just set the bar, they are the bar — and after WWE Great Balls of Fire, that bar is officially forged in iron.

The Raw Tag Team Champions denied The Hardy Boyz in the most grueling of contests, a WWE Iron Man Match, by scoring more victories (four) than their challengers (three) over a 30-minute span.

And they made their intentions known almost instantly: Cesaro distracted Matt Hardy to tee him up for Sheamus’ Brogue Kick just 16 seconds into the match, putting Team Xtreme into an 0-1 hole right out of the gate.

Jeff Hardy suffered the second fall around the 10-minute mark following a protracted 2-on-1 attack that ended with The Swiss Cyborg booting Matt off the apron and aiding Sheamus in a White Noise for the pinfall.

The Hardys repaid Cesaro in kind three minutes later, however, as The King of Swing was felled by the trifecta of Poetry in Motion, the Side Effect and a Twist of Fate to cut the titleholder’s lead to 2-1.

The champs answered right back, handing the Hardys a count-out fall after Cesaro threw legal man Matt Hardy into the ring post at the end of a brawl on the outside.

At Cesaro’s insistence (“All the time in the world!”), they isolated Matt and chewed up as much time as they could, whittling the clock down to around 7:13 before Jeff snuck a tag in on Matt and pinned an unsuspecting Cesaro to cut the champions’ lead to 3-2.

After Cesaro narrowly saved Sheamus from a three-count off a moonsault, Matt administered a top-rope Twist of Fate to the Irishman to tie it up at 3-3 with under three minutes to go.

The maneuver left Sheamus out on his feet and it fell to Cesaro to singlehandedly save the match. First, he broke up a pinfall after both Hardys splashed Sheamus at once.

Then, he blind-tagged his way in and pounced on Jeff for the quick 1-2-3 after The Charismatic Enigma hit the Swanton Bomb on Sheamus, whom he thought was legal.

The ensuing pinfall gave the champs a 4-3 edge with 29 seconds left, and The Swiss Cyborg attempted to protect the lead by running laps around the ring while The Charismatic Enigma pursued.

Back in the ring, Jeff finally managed to catch Cesaro in a Twist of Fate, but the clock ran out right as he made the cover.

It took a moment for the wreckage to sort itself out after the match.
The WWE Universe roared in agony, the champions celebrated up the ramp, and a busted-open Matt Hardy processed it all with a wide-eyed look of insanity.

Cesaro & Sheamus earned their jubilation, but make no mistake: While they may be the proverbial bar, both teams unquestionably raised it for anyone who dares to follow.

Sasha Banks def. Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss via Count-out



DALLAS — Alexa Bliss retained her Raw Women’s Championship at WWE Great Balls of Fire, but she didn’t defeat Sasha Banks to do it — she merely survived.

Sasha very clearly was looking to embarrass Bliss in their title clash, and Little Miss Bliss pulled out every dirty trick in the book to stop her, even exploiting a double-jointed elbow to make it appear as though she’d broken her arm before socking Sasha in the face.

When that didn’t work, she tried to take a walk only to sucker Sasha in again.
Bliss bounced Banks’ back off the apron and focused the entirety of her offense on the vulnerable area for the rest of the title bout.

A gutsy Banks refused to stay down, even as Bliss’ attacks on her spine grew in savagery by the second.

The Boss even gained an advantage, throwing hands with the champion and countering a Twisted Bliss with knees to the gut before locking in the Bank Statement moments later.

Alexa somehow managed to break the hold by crawling her way to the ropes, at which point she decided to hold onto her title by any means necessary.

Bliss scurried away from Sasha over and over, finally fending off The Boss with a slap to the face to take what seemed to be an intentional count-out loss to remain champion.

Not remotely satisfied with this turn of events, Sasha pursued Alexa up the ramp, shoved her into the LED boards and flattened Bliss with leaping double knees off the announce table to the concrete floor.

So, yes, Alexa gets to keep the Raw Women’s Championship. But everyone knows who won this fight.

Intercontinental Champion The Miz def. Dean Ambrose



DALLAS — It’s good to be The Miz: A beautiful wife, a devoted Miztourage, and, still, the Intercontinental Championship following a successful title defense against Dean Ambrose at WWE Great Balls of Fire.

Granted, Miz owes a great deal of debt to that same Miztourage, who commanded Ambrose’s attention from the jump.

The Lunatic Fringe faced, essentially, a 3-on-1 disadvantage and seemed to be handling it well at first, taking out Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas after putting Miz in an early hole.

But The Axe Man’s presence distracted Ambrose enough for Miz to reclaim the advantage, and The A-Lister held that lead for minutes on end before The Lunatic Fringe mustered up the energy to respond.

The Awesome One quickly answered back, busting Ambrose’s mouth open before battering his knee in the Tree of Woe in order to soften up the No. 1 contender for the Figure-Four Leglock.

The Lunatic Fringe not only broke the hold but quickly willed himself into a second wind, goading The Miz into an uncharacteristically aggressive charge that landed the champion square in the path of an elbow drop.

Maryse and The Miztourage immediately entered the fray, with the former distracting the ref while the latter pulled The Lunatic Fringe out of the ring.

Ambrose rallied to take out Miz and Miztourage with an elbow drop and land Dirty Deeds, but Maryse placed her husband’s foot on the ropes to break up the pinfall. Ambrose instantly followed up with a suicide dive, and The Miztourage again interjected when Axel climbed onto the apron and was instantly tossed aside by Ambrose.

This distracted the ref, however, which allowed Dallas to hammer Dean in the back of the head, staggering The Lunatic Fringe into a match-ending Skull-Crushing Finale.

So, The Miz remains champion, but like any star worth his salt, it’s fair to say he’s only as good as his team.
And if this match is that indication, that makes him very, very good.

Braun Strowman def. Roman Reigns (Ambulance Match)



DALLAS — In a match where the goal is to brutalize your opponent so severely that he is driven away in the back of an ambulance, Braun Strowman landed the biggest victory of his young career — but it was Roman Reigns who nearly wiped his foe off the face of the earth by backing an ambulance with Strowman inside straight into an 18-wheeler.

Before Reigns perpetrated the ultimate act of aggression, though, Strowman administered such an onslaught that the only damage he sustained in the early goings was after two trips into the ring post — once at Roman’s hands, and again after The Monster Among Men overshot his man and accidentally ran into the steel himself.

Alas, it wasn’t nearly enough to slow him down. The Gift of Destruction continued apace, even slinging Reigns over his shoulder to begin the trek to the ambulance.

The Big Dog revived himself enough to bring the fight back to the ring and finally achieved an advantage by targeting the monster’s surgically repaired elbow with a Drive-By and steel chair — or so it seemed.

Strowman initially appeared to be compromised by the steel, but quickly revealed he was playing possum. Reigns swung the chair into his opponent again and again, to no visible effect.

Quite the opposite, in fact.
Strowman’s anger grew with each swing, and Reigns was once again on the defensive heading up the ramp.

This time, Strowman completed the trek up the ramp, and Reigns went into survival mode, landing two Superman Punches that put Strowman halfway into the ambulance and drove The Monster Among Men through the LED screens when the fight moved back onto the stage.

And still Strowman survived, shoving Reigns back in the orbit of the ambulance and finally moving out of the way as Reigns Speared himself straight into the bay of the vehicle.

The Monster Among Men quickly closed the door to earn the win, but Reigns, to borrow his rival’s old phrase, wasn’t finished with his opponent.

The Big Dog roared back out of the ambulance, locked Strowman inside, drove into the loading dock and backed it up at high speed straight into a truck.

Reigns fled the scene while Raw General Manager Kurt Angle looked on in disbelief and WWE officials attempted to pry Strowman from the wreckage.

The action continued as WWE officials struggled to free Strowman … and then things got very interesting.

Heath Slater def. Curt Hawkins



DALLAS — Heath Slater got a quick win over Curt Hawkins in an unscheduled bout at the WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view, but what truly caught the WWE Universe’s attention was the aftermath of the Roman Reigns-Braun Strowman Ambulance Match moments earlier.

As The One-Man Band defeated The Prince of Queens, the WWE Universe saw firefighters and medical personnel use the jaws of life to finally pry open the wrecked ambulance Reigns had rammed into a truck with Strowman trapped inside.

Officials attempted to carry The Monster Among Men out on a gurney, but Strowman incredibly struggled to his feet and walked out under his own power.

There were two faces at this moment that the WWE Universe won’t soon forget: The look of horrible vengeance in Strowman’s eyes and Raw General Manager Kurt Angle’s look of abject terror.

Universal Champion Brock Lesnar def. Samoa Joe



DALLAS — Samoa Joe took a piece of Brock Lesnar out of Dallas at WWE Great Balls of Fire.
But he didn’t take the Universal Championship.

As expected, The Samoan Submission Machine came into the match with a flawless game plan: Win by any means necessary.

He jumped Lesnar before the bell and put him through one of the commentary tables at ringside with an earthshaking Uranage.

He battered Lesnar across the ring.
He hit him with a sly low blow and survived not one but two trips to Suplex City.

He even locked The Conqueror in a trifecta of Coquina Clutches that brought The Beast to one knee and turned his face a sickening shade of purple that remained long after the final bell.

If there was one thing Joe’s game plan didn’t account for, though, it was the near-inhuman stamina of The Beast Incarnate.

Lesnar answered Joe’s strikes with knees of his own, countered one of those Coquina Clutch attempts into a sidewalk slam and, when things seemed most dire for the Universal Champion, hoisted Joe onto his shoulders for a do-or-die F-5 as a counter to the final Coquina Clutch.

The maneuver was enough to earn Brock the win, although The Conqueror barely made it up the ramp on unsteady legs.

Joe quickly roused from his own stupor to fix his foe with a furious stare, looking every bit the world-beater as he appeared to be for 98 percent of the match.

Lesnar, on the other hand, looked somewhat different.
You could almost say, even after the hard-fought victory, that he looked human.