Home ▸ SmackDown ▸ WWE Great American Bash Results – 7/20/08

Well, the legend of NostraJOEmas went the way of the dinosaur last night.  I was only right on 50% of my predictions (including one that didn’t come up here, I picked Matt Hardy over Shelton Benjamin).  Some of the ones I got wrong didn’t really surprise me, but others did.  I wasn’t too thrilled with the PPV as a whole, though there were some bright spots, including the Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho match.  To be fair though, I think I went into the show with high expectations after last month’s Night of Champions, and the month of great RAWs and SmackDowns afterwards.

My thoughts, and the show results, after the jump!

Ryder and Hawkins def. Finaly and Hornswoggle, Jesse and Festus, and John Morrison and The Miz to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.

Hawkins and Ryder won?  I know I said yesterday that I couldn’t see anybody besides Miz and Morrison walking out the champs, but I really didn’t see Hawkins and Ryder winning the belts.  The finish came after Miz and Morrison were taken out by Festus, leaving Jesse to get pinned by Ryder after Hawkins knocked him off the top rope – and leaving this Bored Wrestling Fan surprised!

Shelton Benjamin def. Matt Hardy to win the WWE United States Championship.

I, along with at least a few other people, did not realize that this match was even booked.  Shelton beat Matt cleanly a few weeks back on SmackDown in a non-title match, which is partly why I predicted a Hardy victory.  It was a real back and forth match, but after Matt missed a moonsault, Shelton hit the Gold Rush to take the win, and the United States Championship.  I have a theory as to why Shelton won the title, and I will make sure to get into that at the end of the post.

Mark Henry def. Tommy Dreamer to retain the ECW Championship.

As you could probably guess, Tony Atlas came to the ring with The World’s Strongest Man, and Colin Delaney accompanied The Innovator of Violence.  Tommy actually put up a pretty good fight, even knocking the big man down long enough to climb to the top rope.  Unfortunately for him, Colin Delaney thought that was a bad idea, and pulled Tommy down.  As Tommy looks at Colin after his sudden betrayal, he turns around into a World’s Strongest Slam, and Mark Henry retains the ECW Championship.

Chris Jericho def. Shawn Michaels via referee stoppage.

Neither one of these guys had pyro for their entrance.  Just an observation.  Anyway, Chris Jericho had two targets in this match to begin with.  He went after the ribs of HBK, and he went after the left eye – which was not the injured eye.  Michaels and Jericho actually had a pretty good back and forth match, but it all went downhill after HBK hit a moonsault to the outside on Jericho and Lance Cade.  As Jericho attempted to get back in the ring, Michaels grabbed him from behind – and caught an elbow to the face for his trouble.  This re-injured HBK’s eye.  Jericho didn’t realize it at first, but when he did, he went on the attack.  The referee would periodically pull Y2J off of the injured HBK to ask if Shawn wanted to continue.  Michaels continuously pled with the ref to not stop the match, but seeing that Jericho kept going after the eye, the referee had no choice but to stop the match at his discression.  Jericho and Cade raised their arms in victory as HBK lay in a pool of his own blood in the center of the ring.

Michelle McCool def. Natalya via submission to win the WWE Diva’s Championship.

Michelle winning this match didn’t surprise me, despite my prediction that Natalya would win.  What surprised me is that after Michelle got to the ropes to break the Sharpshooter, she reversed the next attempt into a Brazillian Heel Hook of her own and got the submission victory.  Natalya obviously didn’t spend enough time in the dungeon before the family sold the house if she tapped out in a title match.  She’s a member of the Hart family, she should be able to get out of submissions, or at least deal with the pain long enough to get to the ropes.  Whatever, the whole thing got overshadowed, because while Michelle was celebrating, Chris Jericho came back out with a microphone.  He told us that Shawn Michaels has wrestled his last match, because he heard the trainers tell HBK that he’s got a detached retina.

CM Punk vs. Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship ended in a double disqualification.

On the World Wrestling Insanity forums, there was a bit of a debate about this one, but I’ll get to that in a second.  Punk put up a good fight here, and the match itself was pretty damned good.  After the match spilled outside the ring, Batista hit a spinebuster and rolled Punk back into the ring.  As he’s about to follow Punk in, he’s attacked from behind by Kane and the referee calls for the bell.  He takes Batista out with a big boot, then chokeslams Punk in the ring.  On his way out, he boots a cameraman and shouts “IS HE ALIVE OR DEAD.”  Back in the ring, Batista has gotten back in, and Punk has gotten to his feet.  Punk raises the belt over his head, then is kicked in the midsection and hit with a Batista Bomb.  As Batista heads back up the ramp, Punk gets back to his feet and raises the belt defiantly, as if to say “I’m still standing, and still the champion.”

This actually fueled some debate amongst World Wrestling Insanity forum posters.  Half said that Punk was made to look weak in this situation, where the other half (myself included) felt that Punk looked stronger for getting up and defiantly raising the championship belt.  I stand by my statement that Punk actually looks stronger now.  Debate it with me in the comments or the forums if you feel differently.

JBL def. John Cena in a New York City Parking Lot Brawl.

This was a pretty brutal looking match.  I went into this one expecting to be bored out of my mind.  I can honestly say it was much better than I expected it to be.  There were a lot of spots on vehichles, definitely a lot of “don’t try this at home moments.”  These included a powerbomb on the top of a vehicle, Cena getting thrown throw a car window, JBL getting his crotch electrocuted with some jumper cables on a car battery, and JBL lighting a car that John Cena was in on fire.  In the end, Cena threw JBL into a car, rammed it with a forklift, then picked the car up with said forklift, drove it out to the arena, and the match wound up on the stage.  Cena went for an FU – but he stopped, thinking to FU JBL off the stage and through the car instead.  Bad idea though, Cena winds up getting thrown off the stage and through the car windshield.  JBL crawled over and got the pin.  JBL is helped out of the arena.  Cena manages to get up and walk out on his own.  Despite losing the match, his music played.

Triple H def. Edge to retain the WWE Championship.

For the first time tonight, the challenger came to the ring first.  Not that it really matters.  These guys put on a good match, as I expected.  Both guys went for their finishers multiple times, countered each time.  Edge fought like a man with something to prove, and Hunter fought like a man unwilling to lose his championship.  In the end, as both men were down Alicia Fox rushed to the ring.  She grabbed the WWE Championship, and tossed it in to Edge.  She then turned around into a Vickie Guerrero clothesline.  Vickie grabbed the title, and got into the ring.  She was looking around and gearing up to hit somebody with the belt(looked like Edge, but I couldn’t be too sure) when she was attacked by Fox.  As the referee was attempting to break it up, Edge rushed in with a spear.  Who he was gunning for wasn’t exactly clear, but who he hit was – Vickie.  As Edge looked down at the damage he’d done, Triple H spun him around into a pedigree for the win.  Triple H celebrates as Vickie and Edge are unconcious in the middle of the ring.

My thoughts?

Alright, since I said I wanted to talk about it, I’m going to get to Benjamin winning the US title first.  TMZ recently reported that the only reason Mark Henry won the ECW Championship was because Michael Hayes made a racist remark in his presence.  The same night that Henry won that title, another black man won the Intercontinental Championship, that man being Kofi Kingston.  Shelton Benjamin won the US Title tonight, and Cryme Tyme just begun a feud with the World Tag Team Champions on RAW this week.  I’m not trying to take away from the talent of any of those individuals – in fact, I said that Henry deserved it when he won the ECW title.  Kofi was my prediction to challenge Chris Jericho and win the IC title.  Shelton was a surprise win, but he’s probably one of the greatest athletes in the company and definitely deserves the US Title.  Just, the timing’s a little weird, dontchya think?

The rest of the PPV I don’t really have a lot to say about that I haven’t said earlier in the post.  So as such, I’m going to end this post, and I will see you guys tonight for Monday Night RAW!

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