When WWE announced their July pay per view would be called Great Balls of Fire, it only left two possibilities – Either Vince McMahon was a huge Jerry Lee Lewis fan or he thought announcers saying the word balls on Raw for a month straight would be hilarious. There was no in between. In a recent interview with the Dallas Observer, Kurt Angle was asked to spill the goods on the real story behind the pay per view’s ridiculous name.
“That’s a pretty incredible name for a wrestling show, isn’t it? The head honcho Vince McMahon thought that the name was hilarious, and that’s pretty much the entire story. You never know when it comes to Vince, but he’s usually right, so we trust him. Vince loves the name, so I expect it to become an annual event.”
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During a June episode of Dinner With The King, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler revealed an interesting fact about WWE‘s usage of the Great Balls of Fire saying that using the name nearly got the WWE in legal trouble with Jerry Lee Lewis, who owns the usage of “Great Balls of Fire.”
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“My personal attorney here in Memphis is Joe Barton. Good friend of mine and my attorney,” Lawler said. “I got a phone call from Joe a few weeks ago, and Joe also represents Jerry Lee Lewis. And Joe said, ‘Hey Jerry, do you happen to know who I would contact at the WWE about copyright infringement?’ I go, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘Well, we understand they are doing a pay-per-view called Great Balls of Fire and Jerry Lee has that phrase trademarked. He has ever since they recorded the song.”
Lawler would go onto say that WWE and Jerry’s people were able to work out a deal for WWE to use the name and something ‘even better.’
“So, I put him in touch with the WWE people, gave him a name. Apparently he called them and got everything worked out. Not only are they using the name, they are using Jerry Lee’s song, which is awesome.”
Awesome may be going a little far. Great Balls of Fire seems like the most random and outdated name possible for a wrestling pay per view, but the WWE Universe is already getting used to it.
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With Kurt Angle echoing the thought that the ppv could become an annual tradition, it’s clear WWE is not second guessing the name. They have, however, made a few changes to the logo after fans noticed how much it resembled a certain part of the male anatomy.
Considering Vince thought the name was so hilarious, we can only imagine his directions for making the logo.
Great Balls of Fire takes place this Sunday at 8pm ET on the WWE Network.
