Best WWE Great American Bash PPV?

[Jindrak Mark]

Or least worst maybe. They're usually brought up among the worst PPVs of their respective years.

I think 2004 was the worst. A truly all-time bad PPV. The US title 4 way and Rey/Chavo were decent. The concrete crypt was an embarrassing main event. Eddie losing the title was depressing. Sable/Torrie was dreadful. The rest of the card was filled with Velocity matches like Luther Reigns v Charlie Haas, Kenzo Suzuki v Billy Gunn and Mordecai v Hardcore Holly.

For best I think either 07 or 08. I'll go with 07. Overall still not exactly a top quality show but Cena/Lashley was a way better than expected main event and two decent midcard title matches in MVP v Matt and Umaga v Jeff.

[tafkaga]

Would be just like Vince to bring back an old WCW PPV and then intentionally make it suck just for laughs.

[agent817]

Shouldn't 2009 also count despite being called "The Bash"? The logo looked similar to the previous year's show's logo, despite having "Great American" omitted from the title.

[johncasey]

WCW came up with some good PPV names.

[thecrusherwi]

I think I only saw the Smackdown Exclusive ones (2004-06). None of them were very good. It's funny that all had some controversy that made me buy each of these awful looking shows. In 2004, I wanted to see how the Concrete Crypt Match would be done (plus I really liked the Eddie/JBL Fued). In 2005, I wanted to see how they would address the Muhammed Hassan situation. In 2006, I wanted to see what they would do when they lost damn near half the card to injury and the dreaded "elevated liver enzymes" at the 11th hour. Plus I wanted to see how the Punjabi Prison Match would go.

All in all, none of the shows were very good. I guess 2004 or 2006 were the least worst. Also it's amazing that 200,000+ people were paying $30-40 for these awful PPV shows. The Network and Peacock Era has really spoiled us.

[agent817]

Jul 14, 2022 8:04:29 GMT -5 thecrusherwi said:

I think I only saw the Smackdown Exclusive ones (2004-06). None of them were very good. It's funny that all had some controversy that made me buy each of these awful looking shows. In 2004, I wanted to see how the Concrete Crypt Match would be done (plus I really liked the Eddie/JBL Fued). In 2005, I wanted to see how they would address the Muhammed Hassan situation. In 2006, I wanted to see what they would do when they lost damn near half the card to injury and the dreaded "elevated liver enzymes" at the 11th hour. Plus I wanted to see how the Punjabi Prison Match would go.

All in all, none of the shows were very good. I guess 2004 or 2006 were the least worst. Also it's amazing that 200,000+ people were paying $30-40 for these awful PPV shows. The Network and Peacock Era has really spoiled us.

Just know this: I bought the DVDs of those shows for collecting purposes. I had watched the 2004 show a long time ago. It's not a good show, but that doesn't mean that I didn't get enjoyment out of some matches, among other things. Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero was match of the night, with JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero coming close (although there were some problems with that match, including the finish). The Fatal 4-Way was...okay. I didn't hate the match. While I didn't like the main event per se, the ending to the show still makes me laugh, even if it is for the wrong reasons. I could put on the DVD just for some of the aforementioned matches. The rest of the show I could do without, as that show felt more like an episode of Smackdown with all of the other matches just added to the card.

The 2005 show was not good. I mean, yes, I could say that the one good match was Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio, but there was too much focus on the storyline than anything else. Hell, the camera and the commentators kept focusing on Dominik throughout the match rather than the action. Booker T vs. Christian was just okay at best. The rest of the show, uh, yeah. While the opening tag match did get the crowd going, it still wasn't a great match. Don't get me started on the Bra & Panties Match with Candice Michelle as the guest referee. Seriously, a match like that doesn't need a guest referee, but then again, all that match was focused on was the fanservice, as Torrie Wilson lost, but then Melina got stripped down after the match as well, and then Candice took off her top (it's not like her ref outfit covered much, anyway).

I haven't actually watched the 2006 one, but I might. I still have the DVD. Yes, I know I could watch it on Peacock, but at least I don't have to worry about ads and could skip to where I want to go.

[Instant Classic]

I wish it was a Raw PPV because I would have loved to see Triple H be on it since he’s a big NWA guy. I know he was on 2008 but that was when it was more so being focused on the Bash part.

[Mozenrath]

Jul 12, 2022 19:12:45 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Would be just like Vince to bring back an old WCW PPV and then intentionally make it suck just for laughs.

It would, but honestly, I think a lot of it was it just being a weak era for PPVs, especially since the brand-specific PPVs meant they were often rather weak. In theory, doing specific ones meant giving two months for build instead of just one, so stronger stories, but that only sometimes panned out in practice.