WWE.com Brock Lesnar will fight Samoa Joe at Great Balls of Fire tonight.
Great Balls of Fire, the latest WWE pay-per-view, is about to begin. How long should viewers expect the event to last? What time will it be over?
Because these pay-per-views are broadcast on the WWE’s own network, the company doesn’t have as strict a time constraint as they do when they’re on the USA Network. Therefore, the length of the show varies depending on if, for example, they want to have Goldberg defeat Brock Lesnar in 86 seconds in the main event.
However, WWE events are generally between two-and-a-half and three hours long give or take a few minutes, and based on recent history, Great Balls of Fire should wrap up between 10:40 and 11:05 p.m. Eastern Time.
The majority of the WWE’s pay-per-views this year (other than WrestleMania) ended before 11:00 p.m. Money in the Bank and Extreme Rules both ended at 10:42, Backlash ended at 10:49, and Payback ended at 10:45. However, Fastlane ended at 11:03, and Elimination Chamber ended at 11:04. Royal Rumble and WrestleMania both went later than that, but those, of course, were much more significant events.
Most of these more “normal” pay-per-views end up being shorter than a typical episode of Monday Night Raw, even though they are the events that Raw is building up to. However, that’s mostly because the WWE Network doesn’t have any commercials, other than a few ads for their own shows, whereas Raw has tons of ad-breaks. In terms of pure content, the pay-per-views are longer.
Great Balls of Fire’s main event will almost certainly be the Universal Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe, with the ambulance match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman probably coming somewhere near the end. However, the WWE never publicly announces the order of the pay-per-view matches beforehand, so you can’t exactly just tune in for the one match you want to see. There’s only one match where we know for sure when it will take place: the Cruiserweight Championship match, which will occur on the pre-show.