WWE Great Balls of Fire 2017 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

RAW Women’s Championship Match

Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Sasha Banks

What we learned: I think we learned here that the women don’t have to be put into a “we’re making history here tonight” situation to be entertaining. Perhaps just as important, we learned that Alexa Bliss is double-jointed. Seriously, how cool was that spot?

The build for this match was quite entertaining. I haven’t been sold on Bayley since her promotion to the main roster and it was good to get her away from the title picture for a while. Sasha was a good choice as the next contender to Bliss, who continues to impress me. Her in-ring work still isn’t perfect but she’s getting better each and every time she goes out there and I found this match to be very entertaining. They worked a great back-and-forth contest, with both getting some nice spots in and playing their roles to perfection.

The countout finish, while not ideal, was a good way to keep the feud going and it just works right into Bliss’ character anyway. She’ll do whatever it takes to stay the champion (classic heel tactic) and she did that. However, instead of Alexa just laughing it off and walking away or Sasha standing in the ring in disbelief and waiting until Monday night to address it, we got a nice post-match brawl, which was done very well. That adds even more passion to the feud and I liked everything about this segment.

What’s next: Obviously, Sasha Banks isn’t done with Alexa Bliss and this should take us into SummerSlam nicely, especially with Nia Jax, who was extremely dominant in the gauntlet match leading into this event, waiting in the wings for her turn. Her turn has been coming for quite some time now and we’ll likely get a Triple Threat Match in Brooklyn that should make everyone look just fine coming out of it. Nia can get her first reign and her big moment on the big stage. Alexa can say that it took two people to beat her for the title and Sasha is always going to be over. Everybody wins here and the next six weeks should be very entertaining.