Honestly, if you weren’t watching wrestling in 2017, you missed one of the weirdest fever dreams in the history of sports entertainment. It’s been years, but fans still can't stop talking about it.
WWE Great Balls of Fire was real.
It wasn't a joke. It wasn't a parody. It was a legitimate, high-budget pay-per-view event that took place on July 9, 2017, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The logo looked like a 1950s diner menu, the theme song was a 1957 rock-and-roll hit by Jerry Lee Lewis, and the name... well, the name launched a thousand memes.
Why WWE Great Balls of Fire actually happened
Most people assume the name was some sort of corporate mistake or a temporary placeholder that accidentally went live. Nope. Vince McMahon, the boss at the time, reportedly thought the name was hilarious.
Kurt Angle, who was the Raw General Manager back then, later shared that Vince basically just loved the phrase. There was no deep marketing strategy. There was no focus group. It was just one of those "Vince-isms" that the entire company had to roll with.
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But there was a legal hurdle. Jerry Lee Lewis’s people weren't exactly thrilled at first. WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler actually had to step in because his lawyer also represented Jerry Lee Lewis. They eventually settled things, the rights to the song were secured, and the show went on.
Interestingly, it replaced a show called Bad Blood. Think about that for a second. We almost had a standard, gritty wrestling show, and instead, we got something named after a lyric about sweaty palms and nervous knees.
The main event: Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe
Despite the goofy name, the wrestling on this show was surprisingly high-level.
The main event saw Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Samoa Joe. This was a dream match for a lot of us. You had the "Beast Incarnate" versus the "Samoan Submission Machine." It was a collision of two guys who didn't just "wrestle"—they looked like they were trying to dismantle each other.
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Joe didn't wait for the bell. He jumped Lesnar during the introductions and put him through an announce table. It was chaos. The actual match only lasted about six minutes, but it was six minutes of pure, unadulterated violence.
Joe had the Coquina Clutch locked in. Lesnar’s face turned a shade of purple that didn't look healthy. He eventually escaped and hit a single F5 to win, which felt a bit abrupt to some, but the intensity was undeniable.
The Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns carnage
If the main event was a sprint, the Ambulance Match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman was a demolition derby.
These two were in the middle of a rivalry that literally involved flipping ambulances and throwing office chairs. At WWE Great Balls of Fire, the goal was simple: throw your opponent in the back of an ambulance and shut the doors.
Strowman won the match after Roman missed a spear and flew headfirst into the back of the vehicle. But it was the post-match scene that people remember. Roman, in a fit of rage, locked Braun in the ambulance and drove it into the loading dock area. He then backed it—at high speed—into a semi-truck trailer, crushing the back of the ambulance.
It looked like an attempted murder on live TV. It was awesome.
Breaking down the rest of the card
The show was surprisingly deep. We often see "B-level" shows feel like filler, but this felt essential.
- The Hardy Boyz vs. Sheamus & Cesaro: They had a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Tag Team titles. It was grueling. Sheamus and Cesaro (The Bar) barely escaped with a 4-3 victory.
- Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss: A really solid match for the Raw Women's Championship. Sasha won by count-out, meaning Alexa kept her title, but the post-match brawl on the stage was great.
- The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose: This was for the Intercontinental Title. It was a classic Miz match—lots of interference from the "Miztourage" (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel) leading to a cheap win.
- Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins: The opening match. It was fine, though it felt like a prelude to bigger things for both guys.
The legacy of a flaming logo
Why do we still care? Because WWE Great Balls of Fire is the perfect example of how WWE can take a "stupid" idea and make it work through sheer talent.
The logo was mocked for looking like... well, something NSFW. The name was mocked for being sixty years out of date. Yet, the 16,559 people in the arena didn't care. The show delivered.
It never became an annual event. In 2018, it was replaced. It remains a one-hit wonder in the history of wrestling schedules. A bizarre, loud, violent, and strangely entertaining glitch in the matrix.
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What you should do next
If you're a newer fan who only knows Roman Reigns as the "Tribal Chief" or Brock Lesnar as a cowboy, you owe it to yourself to go back and watch this show on the WWE Network or Peacock.
- Watch the Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar build-up promos first; Joe was never more terrifying than he was here.
- Check out the Ambulance Match for some of the best "big man" choreography you'll ever see.
- Look for the specific camera angle of the stage where the logo was positioned—you'll see exactly why the internet went crazy.
The name might be a joke, but the matches were anything but. It’s a snapshot of a very specific time in wrestling history where the logic was thin, but the action was thick.