NXT
Date: July 5, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph
It’s another special night this week, as we have the Great American Bash. That means we have a stacked card, including multiple title matches. The main event is Cameron Grimes challenging Bron Breakker for the NXT Title, which should be a heck of a match. NXT does well enough with these shows so let’s get to it.
Happy Saturday Everyone!
Seeing as I reviewed an ECW show from June 1996 last week and I haven’t reviewed this GAB show before, I decided to review it this week as it’s a show I generally enjoy and I’m interested to see if it still holds up.
It’s also quite an historically significant one as well, as not only do The Horsemen get a new member but Kevin Nash and Scott Hall show up to set the table for Bash at the Beach and the forming of the nWo the following month.
Plus, we’ve got Benoit/Sullivan and Malenko/Mysterio to enjoy as well!
Happy Saturday Everyone!
We’ve got another reader request this month, with Sivsky demanding that GAB 2004 get the Stinker treatment. For those who haven’t read one of these before, a Stinker Review is when I look at a show that has a reputation for being awful and then have to decide whether that reputation is deserved or not.
This show has an infamous Main Event of Undertaker taking on The Dudley Boyz, where Paul Bearer gets drowned in concrete if Booger Red doesn’t take a dive, but there’s also plenty of terrible stuff elsewhere on the card as well, along with at least (from memory) two good matches to hold things together.
Let’s see if time has been kind to this one or if it’s just as bad as I remember. If you want to suggest any shows for this feature then please let me know in the comments section
Great American Bash 2007
Date: July 22, 2007
Location: HP Pavilion, San Jose, California
Attendance: 13,034
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Joey Styles, Tazz
It’s a bit of a weird show as we have the big fight between John Cena and Bobby Lashley for the Raw World Title, but the Smackdown World Title is a little screwy. Edge was forced to vacate the title due to an injury, with Great Khali becoming the new champion via a battle royal. Therefore, it’s Khali defending against Kane and Batista in the big hoss fight. Let’s get to it.
Great American Bash 2006
Date: July 23, 2006
Location: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Attendance: 9,750
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield
It’s time for a Smackdown pay per view and the card is actually pretty stacked. This time around the main event is Rey Mysterio defending the World Title against King Booker, but we also have a Punjabi Prison match between Undertaker and Great Khali, plus the big Batista pay per view return. Let’s get to it.
NXT
Date: July 8, 2020
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Tom Phillips, Beth Phoenix
We wrap up the Great American Bash tonight with the second of two shows. This time around it’s a big one, as NXT Champion Adam Cole faces North American Champion Keith Lee in a title for title match. That could go either way and may be the biggest match NXT TV has ever seen. Let’s get to it.
Hello You!
Time for some more Main Event reviews, as we look at WCW’s Great American Bash Event. For simplicities sake, I’m just going to count the official pay per view events, as otherwise we’d be here for a long time due to The Bash being a big tour prior to it becoming an official pay per view. I’m also not going to cover WWE’s version of the event, because I never really enjoyed those ones and I’m not really that eager to relive them.
Anyway, there’s chuffing wrestling, so we should watch it!
Great American Bash 2005
Date: July 24, 2005
Location: HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York
Attendance: 8,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
It’s their patriotic show, which isn’t likely to mean much in regards to anything more than the name. The official main event is Batista defending the World Title against JBL but the real main event is Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio over the secret that Guerrero wants to tell Rey’s son Dominic. I’m not seeing a great show here, but it could be lot worse. Let’s get to it.
Hello You!
Back again with another list, this time for The Great American Bash. Just to quickly explain, I’m only covering full Pay-Per-View events that happened under the NWA or WCW umbrella, so basically the previous Bash tours prior to 1988 aren’t included, which means the great War Games matches don’t make the list. Rest assured that I like them a lot however.
Also I’m ignoring the WWE Great American Bash shows for this list and decided just to focus on the NWA/WCW ones. Apologies if you’re a big fan of JBL winning the WWE Title or Muhammad Hassan getting killed off with a powerbomb, but those events aren’t going to be considered for this list because I wanted to give WCW it’s time in the sun. Maybe I can do the WWE ones on their own one day, but to be honest outside of Umaga Vs Jeff Hardy, John Cena Vs Bobby Lashley and Chris Jericho Vs Shawn Michaels I’d be drawing a blank over what matches would actually qualify to make the cut. It certainly wouldn’t be Undertaker and Big Show in a Panjabi Prison that’s for sure. Maybe I could do Six of the Worst for the WWE Bash events? Something to ponder…
This was actually quite difficult to get this down to six matches as I whittled it down to eight and then had to make some tough choices. If you look at the matches in bold in the honourable mentions, they were the two matches that only just missed out. All eight were perfectly valid choices in my mind, so I just went with the six I personally enjoyed the most. The exclusion of the two matches that didn’t make it is no comment on their quality, but I had to have six so I cut them.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for The Great American Bash!
Great American Bash 2004
Date: June 27, 2004
Location: Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, Virginia
Attendance: 6,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
We had to get here at some point and that’s not the most appealing thing in the world. The double main event will see JBL challenging Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Title in a Texas Bullrope match (totally different than the Montana bullrope match) and the Undertaker vs. the Dudley Boyz in a Concrete Crypt match (totally different than the good idea match). Let’s get to it.
Live from Baltimore, MD
Airdate: July 7, 1990
Attendance: 10,000 (8.900 paid)
Hosted by Jim Ross & Bob Caudle
Will this be Sting’s crowning moment? Or will the “Nature Boy” continue to reign as World champion? Read on!
Live from Baltimore, MD
Airdate: July 10, 1988
Attendance: 13,000
Hosted by Tony Schiavone & Jim Ross
So…how did you like my WrestleMania IV reflection? Now you know why last week’s column wasn’t as robust as usual.
Taped from several cities
Airdates: several dates
Attendance: varied by location
Hosted by Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross with token appearances by Bob Caudle and David Crockett
As you can see, this was not so much a one-night extravaganza as much as a “best of” tour with blockbuster matches. Of course, the most historical portion of the tour was featured prominently to provide everyone with arguably Dusty Rhodes’ greatest idea.
No, it’s not Women Crush Wednesdays, it’s World Championship Wrestling here weekly on the BoD!
Which would you rather watch: A great PPV such as Great American Bash ’96 or an awful one like Great American Bash ’91?
You make the call!
Bash ’96 included:
Bash ’91 included:
So what’s your pick and what are your thoughts about your pick?
Great American Bash 2000
Date: June 11, 2000
Location: Baltimore Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 7,031
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden, Scott Hudson
The company is in a very bad place right now and it seems like it can only get worse. At this point the company is all about Russo and Bischoff plus a few older wrestlers who can beat up huge groups of young talent in a matter of seconds. The main event here is Nash vs. Jarrett for the title, even though Nash has given away the World Title twice in the last year and a half. Let’s get to it.
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Live from Charlotte, NC
Airdate: July 6, 1985
Attendance: 27,000 (32,000 was quoted within the video)
Hosted by Gordon Solie and Bill Apter
Match commentary by Tony Schiavone
