WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017 Results: Worst Booking Decisions from PPV

The Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view was a throwback of sorts to the wild, chaotic and unpredictable events of The Attitude Era and a welcome wake-up call to the WWE Universe as the company embarks on the long road to SummerSlam on August 20.

Sunday's event produced excitement and anticipation for the fallout, something that has not necessarily been a trademark of recent WWE pay-per-views.

The matches captivated the audience and the Superstars involved appeared more motivated than in previous months.

For all the positives coming out of the WWE Network broadcast, though, there were still several poor booking decisions that have become trademarks of the promotion.

No Finn Balor

A year ago this month, Finn Balor made the jump from NXT to Raw and instantly found himself en route to making history at SummerSlam. On his first night with the Raw brand, he won a Fatal 4-Way match that involved Rusev, Cesaro and Kevin Owens. He went on to beat Roman Reigns and, at The Biggest Party of the Summer, defeated Seth Rollins to become the first universal champion.

Unfortunately, an injury sidelined Balor and forced him to hand over his title just 24 hours after winning it.

Since returning the night after WrestleMania 33, Balor has felt very much like a lost puppy in a big city: directionless and without help. Sure, he had a brief flirtation with the main event ahead of Extreme Rules and even shared the ring for a star-making promo with Paul Heyman, but that all ended the moment he was choked out by Samoa Joe at the June 4 pay-per-view.

Since then, he has been firmly entrenched in the midcard, wrestling meaningless squash matches against Curt Hawkins and engaging "The Drifter" Elias Samson in a rivalry that consistently felt thrown together as a means of giving both something to do.

Rather than bringing that program to a head at Great Balls of Fire, Balor was left off the card entirely.

One of the most marketable and popular stars on the entire roster, whose image is all over T-shirts, trading cards, posters, books and other merchandise, was deemed unworthy of a spot on a show called Great Balls of Fire.

That's the epitome of poor booking. For a brand that has made it a priority to get Titus O'Neil, Apollo Crews and Akira Tozawa increased television time, the fact that WWE Creative cannot find something meaningful for Balor to do, not to mention get him on a brand-exclusive pay-per-view, is ridiculous and insulting of his talent.

A 30-Minute Iron Man Match

The match between The Hardy Boyz and Raw tag team champions Sheamus and Cesaro was one of the best on the entire Great Balls of Fire card. At the same time, it had potential to be even better but was diminished by the stipulation forced on the performers.

At multiple points in Sunday's match, it felt like the champions and their No. 1 contenders had put together a superb 20-minute bout that was forced into a half-hour time frame, leaving the Superstars involved to piece together moves and spots to make up the extra 10 minutes. 

It hurt the flow of the bout and led to several disjointed sequences. The timing was also thrown off, as one can see in numerous instances of one guy trying to break up a pinfall before the three-count.

Rather than being the show-stealing, potential Match of the Year candidate the match probably should have been, it was a good, bordering on great, one.

In a year when WWE has not produced nearly as many as definitive matches as it has in the past, ruining the opportunity to have a truly superb match for the sake of shoehorning another gimmick match into a pay-per-view card was a mistake the company must be more vigilant in preventing.

One look at the upcoming Battleground pay-per-view on July 23 from SmackDown Live, and the number of gimmick matches already announced, suggests it has not and will not learn its lesson.

Heath Slater vs. Curt Hawkins

There is nothing a company can do more disrespectful than showing its talent they are irrelevant.

By booking Slater and Hawkins to stumble to the ring in a state of disbelief for an "unexpected" match right in the midst of the chaos involving Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and the wrecked ambulance, that is exactly what it did.

Worse yet was focusing attention on medical personnel rescuing Strowman from the back of the crashed vehicle rather than on the Superstars plying their craft in the ring. Sure, WWE officials can argue that Hawkins vs. Slater was their way of keeping the live audience entertained while they set up Strowman's monster recovery, but odds are those in the arena were fixated on the video screens rather than the two undercard guys working for their attention.

It was wholly unnecessary and unfair to two guys who have done anything management has asked of them while receiving little in the way of career advancement. That the finish took place off-screen served as the biggest slap in the face.

Ambulance Match Finish

Roman Reigns missing a spear and sliding into the back of an ambulance just in time for Strowman to close the door and win the match was not clever. It did not make The Monster Among Men look opportunistic. Instead, it made Reigns look stupid.

Like really stupid.

In what universe was it a good idea to deliver a spear that was more likely to send Strowman back-first into the bumper of the vehicle than inside of it? Did he not ever stop to think that Strowman may move and thus put Reigns in a precarious and vulnerable position? Did management not take into consideration the potential for widespread internet meme creation?

These are all valid questions that should have been running through the minds of those putting the match together when that finish was booked.

There was nothing barbaric or final about it. Reigns slipped on the proverbial banana peel and looked more like a cartoon character rather than a badass, three-time WWE champion.