The Great American Bash

The Great American Bash was an annual summer pay-per-view event produced by the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions and then by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). According to Ric Flair in his autobiography, To Be the Man, Dusty Rhodes invented the concept of The Great American Bash.
After the final Great American Bash was held by WCW on June 11, 2000, the event would not be held again due to the acquisition of WCW by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). After a four-year hiatus, however, the event was revived by WWE in 2004 until 2009 (the name of the final event being abbreviated to "The Bash"), and was also used as the title for a special live edition of SmackDown in July 2012. WWE's production of The Great American Bash was the 1st former WCW pay-per-view event to be revived by WWE.
==History==
The Great American Bash was invented by Dusty Rhodes, a prominent wrestler of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), who became a wrestler and booker of the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). The first Great American Bash event was held by JCP on July 6, 1985 in Charlotte, North Carolina at the American Legion Memorial Stadium. It was broadcast on closed-circuit television. In 1986 and 1987, The Great American Bash was held as a series of events. The Great American Bash continued to be broadcast on closed-circuit television until the 1988 event, which was the first to be broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV). In November that year, JCP was purchased by Turner Broadcasting System and JCP was rebranded as World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
WCW continued to produce The Great American Bash under the NWA banner until WCW seceded from the NWA in January 1991. As such, the 1991 event was the first Great American Bash produced by WCW alone. After the 1992 event, WCW did not hold the PPV again until they revived it in 1995. It then continued annually until 2000. The 2000 event was the final Great American Bash held by WCW, as in March 2001, WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002.
After a four-year hiatus, the event was revived by WWE in 2004. To coincide with the brand extension, where the promotion divided its roster into brands where wrestlers exclusively perform, the 2004 event was held exclusively for the SmackDown! brand. It continued to be held exclusively for SmackDown! in 2005 and 2006. Following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued, thus the events from 2007 to 2009 featured the Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brands. In 2009, the event was renamed as The Bash. It would be the only held under this name, as well as the last held on PPV, as the event was replaced by Fatal 4-Way in 2010.
In April 2011, WWE ceased using its full name with the WWE abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism. WWE then revived The Great American Bash in July 2012 under the event's original full name. This event was held as a special episode of SmackDown. After another eight years, WWE again revived the event, this time for the NXT brand as a two-part special episode of NXT. The event was scheduled to again be held as a special episode of NXT in 2021, thus becoming an annual event for NXT.
==Dates and venues==
	WCW/nWo co-branded event		SmackDown-branded event		NXT-branded event
# 	Event 	Date 	City 	Venue 	Main Event
National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions 	National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions 	National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions 	National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions 	National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions 	National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions
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
2 	The Great American Bash 1986 	July–August 1986 	A tour of 13 shows around the south and eastern parts of the country 	A tour of 13 shows around the south and eastern parts of the country 	Dusty Rhodes (c) vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
3 	The Great American Bash 1987 	July 1987 	A tour of several shows around the south and eastern parts of the country	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
National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling	National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling	National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling	National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling 	National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling 	National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling
5 	The Great American Bash 1989 	July 23, 1989 	Baltimore, Maryland 	Baltimore Arena 	Ric Flair (c) vs. Terry Funk for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
6 	The Great American Bash 1990 	July 7, 1990 	Baltimore, Maryland 	Baltimore Arena 	Ric Flair (c) vs. Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
World Championship Wrestling 	World Championship Wrestling 	World Championship Wrestling 	World Championship Wrestling 	World Championship Wrestling 	World Championship Wrestling
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
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 for the inaugural NWA World Tag Team Championship
9 	The Great American Bash 1995 	June 18, 1995 	Trotwood, Ohio 	Hara Arena 	Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage
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 	Baltimore, Maryland 	Baltimore Arena 	Kevin Nash (c) vs. Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
14 	The Great American Bash 2000 	June 11, 2000 	Baltimore, Maryland 	Baltimore Arena 	Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with Ernest Miller as the special guest enforcer
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 	World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 	World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 	World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 	World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 	World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
15 	The Great American Bash 2004 	June 27, 2004 	Norfolk, Virginia 	Norfolk Scope 	The Undertaker vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley 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 	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
22 	NXT: The Great American Bash 2020 	July 1, 2020(Night 1) 	Winter Park, Florida 	Full Sail University 	Io Shirai vs. Sasha Banks
22 	NXT: The Great American Bash 2020 	July 8, 2020(Night 2) 	Winter Park, Florida 	Full Sail University 	NXT Champion Adam Cole vs. North American Champion Keith Lee in a Winner Takes All match
23 	NXT: The Great American Bash 2021 	July 6, 2021 	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 	Orlando, Florida 	Capitol Wrestling Center at 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 	Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Ilja Dragunov for the NXT Championship
==Gallery of Logos==
GMB.jpg
GAB 98.jpg
WWE-Great-American-Bash-Logo.png
NXT The Great American Bash.png
==External Links==
* Great American Bash on WWE Network
Category:World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view events
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events
Category:The Great American Bash
Category:National Wrestling Alliance pay-per-view events