WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017 Matches: Full Projections for Each Champion at PPV

This Sunday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, the Raw brand presents the WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017 pay-per-view!

For having such a ridiculous name attached to it, the card itself looks rather decent, with every championship on the red brand being on the line—a rarity whenever Brock Lesnar is holding a belt.

With feuds like The Hardy Boyz against Cesaro and Sheamus, along with Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz, these storylines should be ending at this event in order to make room for new feuds to take place at SummerSlam.

Which of those titleholders will be able to hold on to the gold and which of the challengers will be crowned the new champions?

Let's gaze into our crystal ball and give our predictions for how these title matches will play out and where the current champions will end up.

Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus

Credit: WWE.com

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t eWrestlingNews) it was said that Sheamus will be written off television around August in order to shoot the film Buddy Games, which was promoted by director Josh Duhamel on Monday Night Raw.

If this is true, Sheamus and Cesaro will need to drop the tag titles before SummerSlam, so why not just pull the trigger at Great Balls of Fire?

This makes sense for the long run of things, too, as the Raw brand is facing a problem with the balance between babyface and heel tag teams with the split of Enzo Amore and Big Cass, as well as The Golden Truth.

Sheamus and Cesaro have had more than enough matches against The Hardy Boyz to be able to do another one at SummerSlam, but the only other option is Heath Slater and Rhyno, who just aren't going to usurp that spot from Matt and Jeff.

The Hardy Boyz are by far the most popular duo on Raw and will have taken priority to begin with, so they'll likely be facing either The Revival, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, or The Miztourage.

It may seem like it's too soon since winning the titles back, but Sheamus and Cesaro will probably be handing them right back to The Hardy Boyz either at Great Balls of Fire or soon after on Monday Night Raw.

The Iron Man Match scenario is as good a tool as any to finish the feud with a true feeling of resolution, rather than just moving on to new challengers, so look out for new champions to be crowned at the pay-per-view.

Intercontinental Champion the Miz

Credit: WWE.com

The Miz's promos as of late have had a running theme of pointing out a lot of truths that may or may not be the mentality of the creative team behind the scenes.

This week, his criticism of Dean Ambrose being someone who can't handle being in the main event rings true when you consider most of his title reigns falling flat, whereas The Miz tends to flourish when given a title—particularly the Intercontinental Championship.

Since he isn't pressured with the entire show resting on his shoulders, he's given more freedom to do his thing and to have fun being the guy people have to chase for, which makes it hard to ever want him to drop those titles.

Considering this, The Miz will probably retain his title at Great Balls of Fire before moving on to a new feud against either Seth Rollins or Finn Balor.

In particular, Balor appears to be just waiting to sink his teeth into an actual feud, and The Miz is the perfect guy to put against him.

Meanwhile, Ambrose can continue to work with Elias Samson or move on to being a sacrificial lamb for Samoa Joe following his title match. More on that later.

When the championship is in Ambrose's hands, storylines tend to feel stagnant. Right now, The Miz has Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel joining him as allies, which freshen things up a bit and allows him to have scapegoats to help secure a victory without Ambrose looking too bad for losing.

Place your bets on The Miz retaining the Intercontinental Championship, by hook or by crook.

Cruiserweight Champion Neville

Credit: WWE.com

So far, aligning himself with Titus O'Neil has been nothing but a benefit for Akira Tozawa, who has made the transition from a supporting player on 205 Live to the current No. 1 contender to the Cruiserweight Championship.

However, Neville has remained firm with his title reign from the beginning, never truly losing much momentum.

Even in his feud against Austin Aries, Neville's losses barely harmed him, and he's currently at an unmatched level, as he so often declares.

Tozawa is getting over with the crowd and has made significant improvements to really connect with the WWE Universe, yet he's out of his league in this match.

The fact that this is on the pre-show hurts the chances for a title change to take place, as that rarely ever happens in the kickoff segment.

This shouldn't be an easy win, but it will be a victory for Neville nevertheless as he stays strong as the king of the cruiserweights, where the next person he needs to truly watch out for is Cedric Alexander, not Tozawa.

Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss

Credit: WWE.com

In the past two weeks, Sasha Banks has been booked exactly how WWE likes to set up their babyfaces before they lose at a pay-per-view and are pushed off to the side for someone else.

In the No. 1 contender's gauntlet, Nia Jax was the true star as she mowed down the competition one by one and seemed to have the win locked down. Then, Sasha stole the victory, earning herself the title opportunity she's receiving here.

On this week's episode of Monday Night Raw, Sasha was forced to take on both Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss in a handicapped fight after Bayley was taken out of commission, but she was still able to pull off a win.

The key to analyzing this is how Sasha made Alexa tap out, not Nia, which led to some arguments between those two over how they lost the match.

The bigger story to tell for SummerSlam will be Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax, and since there isn't going to be enough room for two Raw women's division matches on the card, that is going to be for the championship, not anything including Sasha Banks.

The only scenario where Bliss doesn't retain is if WWE has little faith in Bliss vs. Jax being good enough and wants to make it a Triple Threat or Fatal 4-Way match where Banks is the champion and will be defending against Bliss, Jax and possibly Bayley.

However, when in doubt, the simpler option is the best one to bet on, so whether she has help from Nia Jax or does it on her own, Alexa Bliss should be holding on to the Raw Women's Championship by defeating Sasha Banks.

Universal Champion Brock Lesnar

Credit: WWE.com

While every title defense on this card undoubtedly has repercussions heading into SummerSlam, none can compare to the weight given to the Universal Championship bout between Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar.

This is the headliner for many reasons, not the least of which is the importance of how the winner will shape the landscape of WWE for the next year since it has far reaching implications going into 2018, too.

Unless some kind of shenanigans or an injury changes things up, Roman Reigns will be facing the winner of this match for the Universal Championship in August, and despite the support he's received and his recent push, Samoa Joe doesn't seem to be the man for the job.

Lesnar is still in a league of his own when compared to the rest of the WWE roster, and he's unarguably the bigger draw for a pay-per-view main event even against an opponent we've seen him face before.

Reigns is already booed by a large portion of the audience, yet he's still WWE's priority and will likely be taking the title. This means it's counterproductive for Joe to dethrone Lesnar just to be somehow booked as the babyface at SummerSlam who loses the title that quickly to Reigns.

Lesnar should have a rough night ahead of him and a tough match against Joe, but he will still somehow pull off a victory and retain his title.

Who do you think will be the champions by the end of Great Balls of Fire? Tell us your predictions in the comments section below!

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.