The Great American Bash (2005)

During The Great American Bash , nine matches took place, which were the completion or continuation of the storylines and pre-prepared scripts. Prior to the show, a series of preliminary fights were held to create storylines, the denouement or continuation of which were to take place at New Year's Revolution ^[2] .

Prior to the live pay-per-view broadcast, there was a match broadcast on Sunday Night Heat in which Paul London defeated Nunzio and retained the WWE heavyweight title ^[3] .

Preliminaries

The first live show was a match between MNM (Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury) and The Legion of Doom ( Heindrich and Road Warrior Beast ) for the WWE Team Champion title. During the match, Nitro hit the Beast with a champion belt, but he stood up and performed powerslamm against Johnny. After that, the Beast and Heindrich performed the doomsday device team reception against Naytro and held on hold, having won the championship title ^{[4] [5]} .

The next match was between Booker Tee (with Sharmel) and Christian, in which Booker Tee won thanks to his signature tricks with punch-scissors ^[4] . Then there was a duel between Orlando Jordan and Chris Benoit for the title of champion of the United States of WWE. During the match, Jordan removed the defense from one of the stretch marks. And when Benoit tried to attack Orlando, he dodged, and Chris ran into the run on a bare fence. Taking advantage of this, Jordan held the retention of his opponent and retained the title ^[4] .

The fourth event of the evening was the battle between Undertaker and Mohammed Hassan. When the latter entered the ring, he was accompanied by masked men emphasizing the Arabian roots of Hassan. During the fight, these men all the time tried to intervene, but Undertaker successfully repulsed their attacks. At the end of the match, Undertaker tried to hold a Tombstone piledriver, but Hassan managed to break free and tried to draw a clothesline against his opponent. However, Undertaker counterattacked by chokeslamming. Then he held the hold, becoming the No. 1 contender for the fight for the world heavyweight title ^{[4] [6]} .

Then there was a team match of six wrestlers between The Mexicools and The Blue World Order . At the end of the match, Super Crazy performed a backflip from the top rope to Big Steve Cool , after which Psykosis kicked him in the fall. This allowed Psykosis to hold and win for his team ^{[4] [6]} .

Main Events

The condition for the next match between Eddie Guerrero and Ray Mysterio was that if Eddie wins, he will tell a secret that neither his family nor Ray's family would like to disclose. During the duel, Guerrero spent three times supplexing against Mysterio, and after his crown frog splash he tried to hold, but Misterio counterattacked and managed to keep his opponent on the shoulder blades. Thus, Ray Mysterio won, and Eddie Guerrero could not tell his secret ^{[4] [6]} .

The seventh event of the evening was the Bra and Panties match between Melina and Torrey Wilson with special guest judge Candice Michelle . To win this fight, you must undress your opponent to underwear. At the very beginning of the match, Wilson managed to remove the sweater from Melina, but soon her rival managed to do the same. Wilson later made Melina a superplex and threw her into the ring, after which she tried to take her pants off, however Melina counterattacked and was the first to take off her pants from her rival. After the match, Michelle tore off her pants from Melina, and then she took off her clothes ^{[4] [6]} .

The main event of the show was the battle between JBL and Batista for the world heavyweight title. During the fight, the JBL manager tried to intervene in the fight by hitting Batista with a folding chair, but he managed to take his chair away and used it against Orlando and JBL. Using a foreign object in a duel, Batista was disqualified, and the winner was JBL. But since, according to WWE rules, a title can change its owner if the applicant wins the victory with a hold or a painful reception, therefore Batista retained the championship title ^{[4] [6] [7]} .

The feud between Batista and JBL continued after the show. July 28 at SmackDown JBL defeated Undertaker and became the number one contender for the title fight on the SummerSlam show ^[8] . The following week, the wrestlers signed a contract to host the SummerSlam match under No Holds Barred ^[9] . At the show itself, Batista defeated JBL and retained the league title ^[10] . The rivalry between the wrestlers ended on September 9, when Batista defeated the JBL in the Texas Bullrope match ^[11] .

On the next issue of SmackDown after The Great American Bash, Eddie Guerrero said that he was the father of Dominic, and not Ray Misterio ^[8] . At SummerSlam, Misterio defeated Guerrero in a match with stairs. Under the terms of the match, having won the match, Misterio received custody of Dominic ^[10] . The last match of their feud took place on September 9, when Guerrero defeated Misterio in a steel cage match ^[11] . After this match, Eddie began a feat with Batista for the world heavyweight title ^[12] . On November 13, 2005, Eddie Guerrero unexpectedly died of a heart attack ^[13] .

The feud between Chris Benoit and Orlando Jordan continued on SummerSlam , during which Benoit defeated his rival in 25.5 seconds and became the new United States WWE champion ^[10] . On September 1, Benoit once again defeated Jordan, already in 23.4 seconds ^[14] , and a week later in 22.5 seconds ^[11] .

Reviews

The maximum capacity of the “HSBC Arena” is 18,690 people ^[15] , but the arena could only accept 8,000 people on the wrestling show and all tickets were sold. Thanks to ticket sales, WWE earned $ 375,000 ^[16] . About 233,000 people ordered the show through the pay-per-view service — the same amount as a similar show the year before ^[17] . The show itself received negative reviews from both fans and reviewers. Thus, the publication Canadian Online Explorer rated the show 5 out of 10, and the main event of the evening was rated 3 out of 10. The best match of the evening, according to the publication, was the match between Ray Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, which received 8 points ^[18] .

On August 23, 2005, Sony Music Entertainment released a DVD of the show ^[19] . On October 8, 2005, this DVD reached seventh place on the Billboard chart in the Recreation and Sports category, and the next week peaked at fourth place ^[20] . In total, the disc lasted in the top ten for four consecutive weeks and only on December 15, 2005 flew out of it, dropping to thirteenth place ^[21] .

• Official Great American Bash 2005 website
• The Great American Bash on the Internet Movie Database