During the WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view, Brock Lesnar was barely able to get past Samoa Joe in a hard-fought match for the Universal Championship. From the very beginning, Joe made sure that he would stay on the offense, even attacking Lesnar during the announcement of names. He would then proceed to take Lesnar outside the ring and put him through a table with a uranage.
Lesnar finally gained a quick advantage, before Joe regained momentum shortly after. He was eventually able to lock in a Coquina Clutch, almost making Lesnar pass out. However, Lesnar resiliently gained enough strength to deliver his F5 finisher and leave the match victorious.
Joe was not satisfied with just a hard-fought bout and made it clear that he is not finished with Lesnar. Following the match, Joe tweeted the words “We’ve only just begun…,” teasing that the feud is not over.
Since the match was well-received by the majority of viewers, it would seem as it WWE will decide to continue the feud with Lesnar leading to SummerSlam . However, it still does not appear that this will occur. According to speculation from Dave Meltzer on the Live Audio Wrestling post-show podcast for GBOF , the plan remains that it will be a one-off match.
#CoquinaClutch on the champ! But @BrockLesnar ESCAPES! @SamoaJoe #UniversalTitle #WWEGBOF pic.twitter.com/O7NZqrQWrK
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) July 10, 2017
Although the match was well-received, the potential dilemma that both men faced was the concern of who is the babyface in the feud. Typically, a feud with two heels does not come out to be successful, because no one is rallying behind a competitor to elevate their status.
For Joe, he stated off being very heelish at the start of the feud. However, as the weeks progressed, fans started to view him as someone who can finally slay the Beast, which caused a stronger level of support.
One #F5 seals the deal for @BrockLesnar , who leaves Dallas STILL your #UniversalChampion ! @SamoaJoe #WWEGBOF pic.twitter.com/40ofIYzYpp
— WWE (@WWE) July 10, 2017
As SummerSlam approaches, it should be interesting to see what the direction of Samoa Joe will be. If he remains a strong heel, there is not a strong selection of babyfaces who are currently on the main roster to compete against. Names such as Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins would not do much to up his stock. Reigns would be a good choice, but he may be in a match with Lesnar.
It should make for an interesting six weeks leading to SummerSlam of where Joe will be placed.
[Featured Image by WWE]
