The Great American Bash

The Great American Bash is a

In March 2001, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased WCW. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the promotion revived The Great American Bash as their own annual PPV in 2004. It was held exclusively for WWE's SmackDown brand from 2004 to 2006 before brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued in April 2007. In 2009, WWE renamed the event as The Bash, which was also the final Great American Bash broadcast on PPV, as it was replaced by Fatal 4-Way in 2010.

The Great American Bash returned in July 2012 under its original full name and was held as a

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. 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).^[1]

WCW continued to produce The Great American Bash under the NWA banner until WCW seceded from the NWA in January 1991. As such, the

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 were exclusively assigned to perform,^[5] the 2004 event was held exclusively for the SmackDown! brand.^[6] It continued to be held exclusively for SmackDown! in 2005 and 2006.^[7][8] Following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued,^[9] thus the events from 2007 to 2009 featured the Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brands.^[10][11][12] In 2009, the event was renamed as The Bash.^[12] 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.^[13]

In April 2011, WWE ceased using its full name with the WWE abbreviation becoming an

In July 2019, the July 5 and July 26 editions were uploaded as hidden gems on the WWE Network.^[27]

Steve Regal won the NWA World Junior Heavyweight title from Denny Brown at the final Bash event in Atlanta, then lost it back to Brown a month later and joined the WWF shortly afterwards. Ric Flair regained the NWA World Heavyweight Title from Rhodes in St. Louis one week after the Bash tour ended, then Baby Doll left Dusty Rhodes and became Flair's valet until she was moved to the Central States territory after JCP's purchase later in 1986. Nikita Koloff won the United States Heavyweight title after defeating Magnum T. A. for the fourth time on August 17 in Charlotte, NC, then unified the United States title with the former Georgia National Heavyweight title by defeating champion Wahoo McDaniel in September 1986 (retiring the last of the former Georgia Championship Wrestling titles), then turned face after Magnum's career-ending car accident in October. Manny Fernandez turned on Jimmy Valiant (Valiant lost his hair later in the Bash tour) and become a heel, joining Paul Jones' army, later joining forces with

The 1987 Great American Bash was the third annual Great American Bash event produced by the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). Like the previous year, it was a series of events held throughout the summer of 1987, although this year's tour only had three events instead of 13. This was the first use of the WarGames: The Match Beyond match conceived by Dusty Rhodes.

Rhodes was on the winning side in both events along with

This was the first major card that included the UWF stars after JCP purchased the UWF in April, 1987 as well as Championship Wrestling from Florida, as JCP took over operations of the promotion as well. Lazor-Tron (Hector Guerrero) would leave JCP later in 1987 and vacate the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. The WWF national expansion continued as Big Bubba Rogers would leave later in 1987 to become the Big Boss Man, while other stars such as Chris Adams, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts would return to World Class (WCWA). Dark Journey would leave JCP after the Bashes and retire from wrestling. Manny "The Ragin' Bull" Fernandez would go onto a short feud with Jimmy Garvin before leaving JCP later in 1987. Tully Blanchard would lose his World TV title to Nikita Koloff, then he and Arn Anderson would form a tag team which captured the NWA World Tag Team titles (with a little unsolicited help from the Midnight Express) from the Rock & Roll Express in September 1987. Dusty Rhodes would begin a feud with Lex Luger over the United States Heavyweight title. Jimmy Garvin's valet (and real-life wife) Precious would have her "dream date" with Ric Flair (which turned out to be Garvin's brother Ron Garvin in drag) and Ron Garvin would rekindle his feud with Ric Flair over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which Garvin would win in Detroit, Michigan, on September 25, 1987.

July 4, 1987 in Atlanta, Georgia (The Omni)

July 18, 1987 in Charlotte, North Carolina (Memorial Stadium)

July 31, 1987 in

1. ^ ^ Slater and Swagger's eliminations occurred during a commercial break.

Notes