WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017: What Fans Are Marking Out for After Latest Event

WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017 offered fans tag team excellence, bloodshed, twisted metal and a display of hypermobility to marvel at on Sunday.

Samoa Joe had Brock Lesnar on his heels. Roman Reigns tried to end Braun Strowman forever. Alexa Bliss found a creative and creepy way to gain an unfair advantage at the pay-per-view in Dallas.

And Cesaro and Sheamus defended the Raw Tag Team Championship in a match that was the talk of the inaugural Great Balls of Fire.

What proved to be the best Raw-exclusive event since the brand split, the physicality and its aftermath made fans react. The internet was awash with talk of Joe and Reigns, of blood and an Iron Man match with all kinds of momentum swings.

Read for what when down at Great Balls of Fire that most left the audience abuzz.

Alexa Bliss' Double-Jointed Magic

Credit: WWE.com

Arm drags and suplexes are commonplace. It's quite rare that we see a wrestler dislocate their own elbow as a means to distract their opponent.

Bliss did just that against Sasha Banks in their clash over the Raw Women's Championship. The Wicked Witch did this once in a SmackDown match, but never on a stage this big. 

Seeing her pop her crooked arm back into place like some cyborg was an unsettling, memorable sight.

The folks at the Tights and Fights podcast joked on Twitter: "Bliss has the healing powers provided by pure evil. Or double-jointed elbows."

Banks diving off the announce table got people's attention later on. But it's hard to compete with this kind of joint trickery. Bliss made sure she was among the hot topics in the fallout of Great Balls of Fire.

Blood!

Great Balls of Fire didn't feel PG with all the blood that dripped, smeared and stained.

A gash opened up over Matt Hardy's eye during the Raw Tag Team Championship match. Dean Ambrose's mouth filled with blood as he looked to take down The Miz. Bliss ended up bleeding, too, as a result of her physical matchup with Sasha Banks.

And when Braun Strowman crawled out of the crashed ambulance near the end of the PPV, blood stuck to his arms. It painted the walls as he walked past them.

Sunday's event outdid Extreme Rules in terms of extremeness thanks to all that bloodshed. Wrestling Observer Newsletter writer JJ Williams offered an alternative name for the PPV: "There. Will. Be. Blood."

And with so many fans wistful for the Attitude Era, there is nothing like the sight of the blood in the squared circle to get them buzzing.

The Tag Teams Steal the Show

No contest at Great Balls of Fire whirred and crackled like the Iron Man match between The Hardy Boyz and Cesaro and Sheamus. 

From Sheamus scoring the first fall with a Brogue Kick mere seconds into the battle to the Hardys' desperate comeback to tie the bout at 3-3, this was a contest filled with drama. The audience had plenty to erupt for. 

Fans all over the internet raved about the match. The Still Real to Us Twitter account had high praise for the bout: "For real, that #IronManMatch was amazing."

It's hard to find WWE elements that have all fans in agreement, but it appears that this was unanimously the most thrilling clash of the night.

Roman Reigns Tries to Murder Braun Strowman

Credit: WWE.com

An Ambulance match is expected to be brutal. The rules force the foes to beat each other senseless until one man can lift the other into an ambulance.

No one saw the post-match fireworks between Strowman and Reigns happening, though.

After losing, Reigns stuffed Strowman into the vehicle and smashed it into a truck. The crash left the ambulance a bent and broken mess. It left The Monster Among Men barely able to stand. 

Reigns attempted murder on PPV. Strowman looked inhuman as he emerged from the wreckage, refusing to accept any medical help. 

Saluting the scene on Twitter, The Fan's Podcast said: "I love wrestling for amazing moments like Braun Strowman surviving an ambulance crash and walking away from it."

As good as the Iron Man match was, this will be the most talked-about element of this show. It was a movie stunt and by far the darkest thing Reigns has done on-screen. 

Samoa Joe Nearly Takes Down The Beast

In a surreal sight, Joe challenged Lesnar for the Universal Championship in the bright lights of a WWE PPV.

This came well into The Destroyer's journey. The bout came 17 years after his wrestling debut, 14 years after winning the Ring of Honor World Championship and two years after signing with WWE.

SiriusXM host Sam Roberts reveled in the fact that Joe was in this position. He tweeted: "We're watching @SamoaJoe headline a @WWE PPV against Brock Lesnar, for the title. 2017 is the coolest."

And Joe did more than show up. He nearly swallowed the champion whole in Dallas.

Before the opening bell, Joe pounced on Lesnar. He battered with right hands. He overwhelmed him. He used a ura-nage to send the powerhouse crashing through a table.

A red-faced, reeling Lesnar was able to land an F-5 and fend off Joe, but seeing the veteran get that close to championship glory was a special experience. WWE would be smart to run that all back and give fans Lesnar vs. Joe II.