Home ▸ Other ▸ Why I Hate: WWE Great American Bash

This article is part 6 of a series on WWE Pay Per View events.  See also:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

The Great American Bash has a history all it’s own, and most of it has nothing to do with World Wrestling Entertainment.  For WWE to try to capitalize on the legacy associated with this event is completely understandable. It still needs to hit the chopping block.

I present my arguments against The Great American Bash, after the jump!

The Great American Bash (July)

On July 6, 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions and the National Wrestling Alliance put on a summer supercard, live on Pay Per View.  Dusty Rhodes is credited with coming up with the idea for the show, known as The Great American Bash.  Which probably explains why he headlined it in a cage match with Tully Blanchard for the NWA World Television Championship.  Ric Flair defeated Nikita Koloff on the same card to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

In 1991, the event became a World Championship Wrestling branded event, headlined by a pair of steel cage matches, and seeing Lex Luger win the newly vacated WCW Championship after Ric Flair was fired and took his title with him.

After the acquisition of WCW in 2001 by World Wrestling Entertainment, the event seemed to be nothing more than a memory, but on June 27, 2004, The Great American Bash was reborn, this time as a WWE branded Pay Per View, and was exclusive to the SmackDown brand.  The 2004 edition was headlined by the infamous Concrete Crypt Match, with The Undertaker taking on The Dudley Boyz, and then burying Paul Bearer in concrete.

Let’s be honest here.  If things turned out differently in March of 2001, and somehow it was WCW that won the war and bought up World Wrestling Entertainment, The Great American Bash would be on the safe list (along with Starrcade, Fall Brawl, SuperBrawl, Bash at The Beach, and Halloween Havoc), and it would be SummerSlam on the chopping block in these articles.  The Great American Bash has a legacy behind it, and was absolutely a staple for WCW.  The problem here is, this isn’t WCW.  We’re talking about the WWE, who, three years after the debut of The Great American Bash countered with SummerSlam, which has produced many classic matches in it’s own right.

The Great American Bash has been relegated to secondary status as a Pay Per View, and could be seen as being on the same level as Judgment Day on the grand scale.  It’s legacy deserves better, but in my  ultimate vision of the WWE Pay Per View calendar, it just wouldn’t get the respect it deserves.

Thanks for joining us once again.  The next article in this series will be published next Sunday, March 8th at Noon Eastern.

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