7 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Great Balls Of Fire

2. Joe, Lesnar Have A Slugfest

brock lesnar samoa joe
WWE.com

We knew that Samoa Joe versus Brock Lesnar had the potential to be a knock-down, drag-out fight, but the two behemoths managed to cram in about as much brutality in a short span of time as they possibly could.

Joe wasted no time in jumping Brock from behind during the ring introductions, putting him through an announce table. Lesnar crawled back into the ring to start the match proper, but Joe continued the assault. Brock managed to whether the storm and fire off three German suplexes, only for Joe to hit a low blow and lock in the Coquina Clutch multiple times.

Finally, Brock hit a few more Germans, and with a last gasp of energy, hit an F-5 for the win, escaping with his title rather than defending it vigorously.

The match had to follow the ambulance match and its aftermath, so keeping the bout short and aggressive was probably the best possible decision. Good call, and it worked nicely. Joe looked strong in defeat, and Lesnar looked like a near-unbeatable champion who actually can be weakened, but still won’t break.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.