WWE The Great American Bash

**The Great American Bash,** known simply as **The Bash** in 2009 and as **NXT The Great American Bash** since 2020, is a series of professional wrestling shows held in the summer by WWE since 2004. It was originally made by the National Wrestling Alliance starting in 1985 and then by World Championship Wrestling from 1989 to 2000. According to Ric Flair in his autobiography, Dusty Rhodes invented The Great American Bash.

After the last Great American Bash by World Championship Wrestling in 2000, The Great American Bash did not happen again until 2004 and only SmackDown! superstars were on it until the 2007 event, when Raw and ECW brands joined. Something special about the 2004 event was that anyone in the American military could watch it for free. It was simply called The Bash in 2009, and WWE replaced the series with Fatal 4-Way the following year. In 2012, the Great American Bash returned as a special episode of _SmackDown_. Since 2020, the name is used for a yearly television special of the NXT brand (the 2023 edition however was a livesteaming-only show).

## Dates and venues

Here are the dates and places where past events have been held:

|#|Event|Date|City|Venue|Main event|Ref.||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|The Great American Bash (1985)|July 6, 1985|Charlotte, North Carolina|American Legion Memorial Stadium|Tully Blanchard (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes in a Steel cage match for the NWA World Television Championship|rowspan="4"||||||
|2|The Great American Bash (1986)|July–August 1986|colspan="2"|A tour of 13 shows around the south and eastern parts of the country|Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair (c) for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship|||||||
|3|The Great American Bash (1987)|July 1987|colspan="2"|A tour of several shows around the south and eastern parts of the country|The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk), Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, and Paul Ellering vs. The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, and Tully Blanchard) and The War Machine in a WarGames match|||||||
|4|The Great American Bash (1988)|July 10, 1988|Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore Arena|Ric Flair (c) vs. Lex Luger for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship|||||||
|5|The Great American Bash (1989)|July 23, 1989|rowspan="2"|Baltimore, Maryland|rowspan="2"|Baltimore Arena|Ric Flair (c) vs. Terry Funk for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship|rowspan="2"||||
|6|The Great American Bash (1990)|July 7, 1990|Ric Flair (c) vs. Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship|||||||||
|7|The Great American Bash (1991)|July 14, 1991|Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore Arena|Rick Steiner vs. Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously in a handicap steel cage match|rowspan="2"||||||
|8|The Great American Bash (1992)|July 12, 1992|Albany, Georgia|Albany Civic Center|Terry Gordy and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs. Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham in a tournament final to crown the first NWA World Tag Team Champions|||||||
|9|The Great American Bash (1995)|June 18, 1995|Dayton, Ohio|Hara Arena|Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage|rowspan="3"||||||
|10|The Great American Bash (1996)|June 16, 1996|Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore Arena|The Giant (c) vs. Lex Luger for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship|||||||
|11|The Great American Bash (1997)|June 15, 1997|Moline, Illinois|The MARK of the Quad Cities|Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage in a Falls Count Anywhere match|||||||
|12|The Great American Bash (1998)|June 14, 1998|Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore Arena|Sting vs. The Giant for control of the WCW World Tag Team Championship|||||||
|13|The Great American Bash (1999)|June 13, 1999|rowspan="2"|Baltimore, Maryland|rowspan="2"|Baltimore, Maryland|Kevin Nash (c) vs. Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship|rowspan="2"||||
|14|The Great American Bash (2000)|June 11, 2000|Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with Ernest Miller as the special guest enforcer|||||||||
|15|The Great American Bash (2004)|June 27, 2004|Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk Scope|The Undertaker vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) in a Handicap Concrete Crypt match|||||||
|16|The Great American Bash (2005)|July 24, 2005|Buffalo, New York|HSBC Arena|Batista (c) vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield for the World Heavyweight Championship|||||||
|17|The Great American Bash (2006)|July 23, 2006|Indianapolis, Indiana|Conseco Fieldhouse|Rey Mysterio (c) vs. King Booker for the World Heavyweight Championship|||||||
|18|The Great American Bash (2007)|July 22, 2007|San Jose, California|HP Pavilion|John Cena (c) vs. Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship|||||||
|19|The Great American Bash (2008)|July 20, 2008|Uniondale, New York|Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum|Triple H (c) vs. Edge for the WWE Championship|||||||
|20|The Bash (2009)|June 28, 2009|Sacramento, California|ARCO Arena|Randy Orton (c) vs. Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE Championship|||||||
|21|SuperSmackDown LIVE: The Great American Bash|July 3, 2012|Corpus Christi, Texas|American Bank Center|The Great American Bash 20-Man Battle Royal to determine the guest General Manager for the following week's _SmackDown_|||||||
|rowspan="2"|22|rowspan="2"|NXT The Great American Bash (2020)|(Night 1)|rowspan="2"|Winter Park, Florida|rowspan="2"|Full Sail University|Io Shirai vs. Sasha Banks|rowspan="2"||
|(Night 2)|NXT Champion Adam Cole vs. North American Champion Keith Lee in a Winner Takes All match|||||||||||
|23|NXT The Great American Bash (2021)||rowspan="2"|Orlando, Florida|Capitol Wrestling Center at WWE Performance Center|Adam Cole vs. Kyle O'Reilly||||||
|24|NXT The Great American Bash (2022)|July 5, 2022|WWE Performance Center|Bron Breakker (c) vs. Cameron Grimes for the NXT Championship||||||||
|25|NXT The Great American Bash (2023)|July 30, 2023|Cedar Park, Texas|H-E-B Center at Cedar Park|Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Ilja Dragunov for the NXT Championship|||||||
|rowspan="2"|26|rowspan="2"|NXT The Great American Bash (2024)|July 30, 2024|rowspan="2"|Orlando, Florida|rowspan="2"|WWE Performance Center|Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Thea Hail for the NXT Women's Championship|rowspan="2"||
|August 6, 2024|Axiom and Nathan Frazer (c) vs. MSK (Wes Lee and Zachary Wentz) for the NXT Tag Team Championship|||||||||||
|colspan="8"||||||||||||

## Other websites

- Official Website
- _WWE The Bash 2009 Matches_

## Infobox (wrestling ppv series)

- **name**: The Great American Bash
- **image**: NXT The Great American Bash logo 2022.png
- **caption**: NXT Logo used in 2022
- **othernames**: WWE The Bash, The Bash (2009)
- **createdby**: Dusty Rhodes
- **promotions**: National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions (1985–1988)
World Championship Wrestling (1989–1992, 1995–2000)
WWE (2004–2009, 2012, 2020–present)
- **brands**: WWE Raw, Raw (2007–2009)
SmackDown (2004–2009)
ECW (WWE), ECW (2007–2009)
WWE NXT, NXT (2020–present)
- **firstevent**: The Great American Bash (1985), 1985