Found out through apache2 logs that my IP was being flooded with advertisement as a proxy.
Got a new IP and everything seems to be working fine now.
I'll add troubleshooting steps for those who encounter this same issue.
See if you can access your server internally
# curl localhost:80
If you're receiving a long response time or a timeout, then look at your apache logs.
Ubuntu default location: # tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
What I was seeing is thousands of lines of entries trying to use my web server as a proxy for ads. After some research online, this happens mostly when you use an IP that was used before for this purpose. Re requesting a new IP from your ISP (AWS in this instance) will get you back up and running.
If not then start troubleshooting external access # curl domain.com
or # curl x.x.x.x